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Copyright. SeargaPtUip Ss SonV^ 



CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES 

General Editor: F. H. H. Guillemard, M.A., M.D. 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 

C. F. CLAY, Manager 

Eontton: FETTER LANE, E.G. 

dHtitnburgf) : loo PRINCES STREET 




JSerlin: A. ASHER AND CO. 

ILetpjia: F. A. BROCKHAUS 

i^cto gork: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

Bambap. anti ffalrutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 

SToronto: J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd. 

2rofeuo: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA. 



All rights reserved 



Cambridge County Geographies 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



by 
jfHe'^WADE, M.A. 

Joint Author of Rambles in Somerset and the Little Guides to 
Somerset, Monmouthshire, and South Wales. 



With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations 



Cambridge : 

at the University Press 
1914 






C5- 



Camtritrge: 

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. 
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 



3 O ^ 1 I n 



PREFACE 

T SHOULD like gratefully to acknowledge the help 

which I have received in the compilation of this book 

from the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, who have supplied 

me with much information and have furnished me with 

some of the illustrations. 

My thanks are also due to Professor G. W. Wade 
and Dr C. T. Vachell for kindly reading the proofs. 

J. H. W. 

March 19 14. 



CONTENTS 



I. County and Shire. The name Glatnorgan 

1. General Characteristics .... 

3. Size. Shape. Boundaries . . . 

4. Surface and General Features . 

5. Geology and Soil .... 

6. Watershed and Rivers .... 

7. Natural History ..... 

8. A Peregrination of the Coa^t . . 

9. Coastal Gains and Losses : Sandbanks and Light 

houses .... 

10. Climate and Rainfall 

11. People — Race. Language. Population 

12. Agriculture ..... 

13. Industries and Manufactures . 

14. Mines and Minerals 

15. Fisheries and Fishing Stations 

16. Shipping and Trade. Chief Ports . 



PAGE 

I 

4 

6 

10 

16 

29 

37 
45 

S^ 
63 

70 

75 
79 
87 
94 
98 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



17. History of Glamorganshire 

18. Antiqviities .... 

19. Architecture — (a) Ecclesiastical 

20. Architecture — {b) Military 

21. Architecture — (c) Domestic 

22. Communications — Past and Present 

23. Administration 

24. The Roll of Honour 

25. The Chief Towns and Villages of Glamorganshire 



PAGE 
105 

117 

130 

141 

165 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Castle 

Caswell Bay ..... 

Valley of the Rhymney . 

Bishopston Valley .... 

The Garth Mountain 

Mewslade Bay .... 

Geological Section from the Black Mounta 

marthenshire to the sea near Bridgend 
Sandstone at Fairoak Farm, Roath Park 

Penarth Cliffs 

Section of the Lower Lias at Lavernock 

The Taff 

Ogmore Castle 

Kenfig Pool 

Penarth . 

Dunraven Bay 

Worms Head . 

Rhossilli Bay . 

Oxwich Marsh 

Mumbles Head 

Port Eynon Bay 

A Glamorganshire Farm 

Briton Ferry . 



Car- 



PAGE 

4 

7 

9 
1 1 

14 
15 

18 

^9 

24 
26 

31 

34 
41 
47 
50 
53 
54 
58 
61 
62 
76 
84 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Oakwood Pit, Maesteg . 

Coal Trains on their way to the Docks 

Limestone Quarry, near Porthcawl . 

Cardiff Docks ..... 

Barry Docks ..... 

King's Dock, Swansea 

Caerphilly Castle .... 

Neolithic Implements found at Cowbridge 

St Lythan's Cromlech 

King -Arthur's Stone 

Ogam Stone ..... 

The Goblin Stone .... 

Roman baths, Gelligaer . 

Llandaff Cathedral .... 

Ewenny Priory Church . 

St Illtyd's, Llantwit Major 

Newton Church .... 

Churchyard Cross, St Donat's 

Fonmon Castle .... 

Oystermouth Castle 

Coity Castle and Church 

Old Town Hall, Llantwit Major . 

Sker House ..... 

Tudor Gardens, St Donat's Castle . 

Neath Abbey ..... 

Cutting on the Road near the Mumbles 

Porthkerry Viaduct .... 

Cardiff Town Hall and Law Courts 

Cowbridge Grammar School . 

University College, Cardiff 

Admiral Sir Thomas Button . 

Beau Nash ..... 

John Crichton Stuart, 2nd Marquis of Bute 



PAGE 

88 
91 
93 
:oo 
02 
04 
1 2 
21 
23 
25 
26 
27 
29 
35 
37 
38 
39 
40 
42 
= 43 
44 
^47 
:48 
49 
51 
53 
56 
61 

63 
64 
67 
69 

71 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



XI 





PAGE 


Aberthaw Village .... 


• 173 


Bridgend ..... 


• 175 


Cheriton Church .... 


. 177 


Merthyr Tydfil .... 


. 183 


Swansea ...... 


. 187 



MAPS AND DIAGRAMS 

Glamorganshire, Physical ..... Fy-ont Co'uer 

„ Geological ..... Back Conner 

Geological Table ...... to face ^.17 

England and Wales, showing Annual Rainfall . . 64 

Sketch Map showing the Chief Castles of Wales and the 

Border Counties ..... to face p. 141 

Diagrams . . . . . . . . .190 



The illustrations on pages 19, 121, 123, 127, and 129 are 
from blocks kindly lent by the Cardiff Naturalists' Society. The 
Ogam Stone on p. 126 is sketched from an illustration in the 
Archaeohgia Camhrensh. The Geological Section on p. 18 is from 
a map by Messrs G. Philip and Son. 

The illustrations on pages 4, 7, 11, 15, 24, 34, 47, 50, si>^ 54, 
58, 62, 100, 102, 104, 112, 125, 135, 137, 139, 140, 142, 143, 
144, 148, 149, 153, 156, 161, 173, 175, and 187, are reproduced 
from photographs by Messrs Frith & Co.; those on pp. 41, 76, 
88, 93, 138, 147, and 163, are from photographs by Mr F. Evans; 
those on pp. 9, 14, 31, 84, and 164, are from photographs by 
Mr Osborne Long; those on pp. 61, 91, and 151, are reproduced 
by permission of the G. W. Rly. Co.; those on pp. 167 and 171 
are from photographs by Mr Alfred Freke; that on p. 26 is from 
a photograph by Mr W. T. Cooper; and that on p. 183 is from a 
photograph by the Royal Photographic Co. The sketch map of 
the castles is from a drawing by Mr C. J. Evans. 



I. County and Shire. The name 
Glamorgan. 

" County " and " shire " are now loosely used as 
equivalent terms. Originally they admitted of a distinc- 
tion. "Shire" is an Anglo-Saxon word which at first 
denoted a portion of land " shorn " (for the words have the 
same derivation) from a larger territory for the satisfaction 
of a particular tribe. With the consolidation of the Anglo- 
Saxon rule the word lost its early tribal significance, 
and came to mean merely a territorial division for the 
administration of justice and for the collection of taxes. 
The " shire-reeve " (sheriff) was the official responsible 
for the discharge of both these functions. As Wales was 
never conquered by the Saxons, "shire" in the early 
sense of the word had no application to the Principality. 
Our Teutonic ancestors referred to its inaccessible 
fastnesses as " Wales," the land of strangers. The 
Welsh called it "Cymru," the land of fellow-country- 
men. It retained its ancient political independence until 
it was conquered piecemeal by the Normans; and when it 
was eventually annexed by the English crown and parcelled 
out after the English model into shires, the latter word 
had long acquired its purely administrative meaning. 

w. G. I 



2 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Glamorganshire, though regarded from Norman times 
as a shire, had a much better claim to be called a county, 
for the latter term was of Norman introduction, and 
represented the Norman method of local government. 
Though the Normans retained the English form of 
political administration, they altered its character. Their 
method of government was less democratic and more 
arbitrary. The land passed by right of conquest from 
the people into the hands of the king, who let it out on 
feudal tenure to his counts, and each shire in consequence 
became a county. As the predominant feature of Norman 
rule was government by force, the natives were assessed 
in men as well as in money, and " county " and " shire " 
became the names of the same area in its military and 
civil aspects. The sheriff collected the king's revenue 
and administered the king's justice, and the count com- 
manded the king's men. In the border counties the 
control of the Crown was much weaker, and in Wales, 
where dominion was gradually acquired by private ad- 
venture, it scarcely existed at all. The conquered terri- 
tory was looked upon more or less as the personal property 
of the lord who secured it and he governed it much as 
he pleased. As Glamorganshire on its acquisition by 
the Normans obtained a regular administration of justice 
nominally under the jurisdiction of the crown, it was 
technically regarded as a shire, though it was really ruled 
by its lord, whose officer its sheriff was. 

In the reign of Henry VIII, when the whole of Wales 
was formally incorporated with the English dominions 
and divided into shires, the boundaries of the original 



COUNTY AND SHIRE 3 

county of Glamorgan underwent a slight alteration. 
The limits of the Norman lordship had followed the 
lines of the old Welsh kingdom of Morganwg, and had 
extended from the Usk to the Tawe. Under the Tudor 
readjustment the district of Gwynllwg between the Usk 
and the Rhymney was thrown into the newly-formed 
shire of Monmouth, and by way of compensation the 
lordship of Gower was added to the county of Gla- 
morgan. 

Under the modern system of local government, 
"county" and "shire" are again beginning to lose their 
acquired identity. The " shire " is now little more than 
a geographical division, and the county has once more 
become the real administrative area. Their limits are no 
longer quite the same. From the county of Glamorgan 
have been taken away the county boroughs of Cardiff, 
Swansea, and Merthyr, which for governmental purposes 
are independent units, though they still belong geographi- 
cally to Glamorganshire. 

The name " Glamorgan " is merely a popular cor- 
ruption of Gwlad-Morgan^ " the land of Morgan," an 
appellation which it derived from one of its early princes. 
Its alternative title Morganwg 2irosQ from a common Welsh 
habit of designating a territory by adding wg to the name 
of its ruler. 



I — 2 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



3. General Characteristics. 

The predominant feature of Glamorganshire is its 
commercial importance. It is not only the foremost 
county in Wales, but one of the richest provinces in the 
kingdom. Its industrial development has been one of 




Three Cliffs Bay and Pennard Castle 



the v^^onders of the age. A century and a half ago half 
of the shire was a highland wilderness valuable only to 
the sportsman and the sheep farmer. To-day these once 
solitary wastes are some of the most thickly populated 
districts in Britain. The physical features of the county 
have conspired to give it this leading commercial posi- 
tion. Like the rest of Wales it is in parts exceedingly 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 5 

mountainous. The hills lie piled up in great masses across 
half the county, but instead of barring its progress, they 
have been the chief cause of its phenomenal prosperity. 
Figuratively speaking, they have proved to be mountains 
of gold, for they are a vast storehouse of mineral treasure. 
Their yield of coal is prodigious, and there are immense 
deposits of limestone, as well as some iron ore. 

Second only in importance to the mountains is the 
extensive sea-board w^ith v^hich the county is fringed. 
Though a great part of the coast is commercially useless, 
and the number of its natural harbours are comparatively 
few, yet it possesses several tidal estuaries which engineer- 
ing skill has converted into docks, and the Glamorganshire 
ports are some of the busiest shipping centres in the 
kingdom. 

But its rich mineral deposits are not the only source 
of wealth which the county possesses. Glamorgan was 
once famous for its fertility, and to-day it does not alto- 
gether belie its early agricultural reputation. Between 
the hills and the sea rolls a wide undulating plain which 
provides extensive pasturage for cattle, and furnishes an 
admirable soil for the cultivation of wheat. And the 
hills, though of little use in themselves for agricultural 
purposes, nevertheless form a serviceable screen for the 
crops in the lowlands. 

Glamorganshire, besides being a wealthy and bountiful 
land, abounds also in historical interests. Few counties 
possess so many memorials of antiquity. Everywhere 
are to be found traces of primitive life, as well as of the 
civilisation which succeeded it. On the hills are the 



6 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

earthworks and sepulchral monuments of the disinherited 
Celts, and the plains are studded with the ruined castles 
of the invaders who supplanted them. 

Artistically, too, the county is not without its attrac- 
tions, though it has sacrificed much of its former beauty 
to its commercial prosperity. It no longer preserves the 
clear streams and wooded dells for which it was once 
famous, for the rivers are polluted and the valleys are 
sombre and sunless. The smoke of innumerable collieries 
and furnaces clouds the atmosphere, and the once luxuriant 
vegetation has been replaced by tiers of cottages; but 
outside the industrial districts many of its charms survive. 
The hills remain massive and majestic, and their rugged 
outlines and far-reaching prospects still charm the lover 
of scenery. The most fascinating region is the coast, 
which in places is quite remarkable for its grandeur. 
The Gower peninsula is in this respect especially notable. 
Its precipitous cliffs and sandy bays are nowhere surpassed 
for picturesque effectiveness. 



3. Size. Shape. Boundaries. 

Glamorganshire is situated at the south-east extremity of 
Wales, and is the most southerly of all the Welsh counties. 
It lies between 5 1^24' and 50° 48' N. latitude, and be- 
tween 3° 5' and 4° 19' W. longitude. Its boundaries are 
partly artificial and partly natural. On the south it is 
washed entirely by the waters of the Bristol Channel, 
which separates it from the opposite coasts of Somerset 




pq 






8 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

and Devon ; on the north it is bordered by Breconshire 
and Carmarthenshire ; on the east the Rhymney river 
forms the natural h'ne of demarcation betv^^een it and 
Monmouthshire; and on the west it is partly surrounded 
by the combined waters of the Bristol Channel and the 
Burry Inlet, and partly adjoins Carmarthenshire, from 
which it is divided by the Loughor river. 

Except on the north its outlines are well defined, and 
its bold projection into the Bristol Channel gives it a 
marked individuality. The eastern boundary scarcely 
needs tracing in detail, for it follows strictly the course 
of the Rhymney river from its source, near Troed-y- 
Milwyr, the northern extremity of the county, to its 
mouth, two miles east of Cardiff. The western border-line 
may be described with equal brevity. It begins north- 
wards near Pantyffynnon in the valley of the Loughor, 
and descends the stream till it falls into the Burry Inlet 
at Loughor. The northern frontier lies amongst the 
mountains, and except for the fact that the border-line 
roughly corresponds to the northern limits of the South 
Wales coalfield, there are few natural features along 
its course to serve as landmarks, and it is chiefly an 
imaginary line across the hills ; but it occasionally 
acquires sharper definition by pursuing the beds of such 
highland water-courses as trend more or less eastwards 
and westwards. The chief valleys it presses into its 
service are the upper reaches of the lesser Taff, and the 
Cynon, the Sychnant Gorge, the Perddyn, and the upper 
Amman. It abruptly leaves the latter, however, at Cwm 
Amman, and cedes a rectangular corner to Breconshire 



SIZE SHAPE BOUNDARIES 9 

by turning directly southwards to Nant Melyn, at the 
head of Cwm-y-Gors, and then pursuing its way across 
the mountains to the Cathan valley, which conducts it 
to meet the western boundary near Pantyffynnon. The 
places which roughly indicate its course from east to 
west are Troed-y-Melwyr, Pontsticill, Vaynor, Pant, 
Llwycoed, Hirwain, Pont Nedd Fychan, Gaer encamp- 




Valley of the Rhymney 

{showing the Llanbradach viaduct) 

ment on the Perddyn, Ystalyfera, Brynamman, Cwm 
Amman, Nant Melyn, and Pantyffynnon. A line con- 
necting these outposts (some of which lie just outside the 
county border) would roughly describe it. 

In outline the county is exceedingly irregular, and in 
shape it somewhat resembles a shoulder of mutton with 



10 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

the knuckle pointing down channel, and representing 
the peninsula of Gower. Its extreme length from the 
Rhymney river near Ruperra to Worms Head is 54 miles, 
and its greatest width from Rhoose Point to Old Pitwell 
near Dowlais is 29 miles. It has a total area of 811 
square miles or 518,865 acres; and in point of size ranks 
second amongst the Welsh counties, being exceeded only 
by Carmarthenshire. Since its limits were originally 
fixed by Act of Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII, 
its boundaries have remained unaltered. 



4. Surface and General Features. 

We generally speak of a county as flat, or mountainous, 
or diversified ; but it is impossible to sum up the charac- 
teristics of Glamorganshire in any one comprehensive 
phrase. A glance at the map will show that it exhibits 
not only great irregularity of outline, but remarkable in- 
equality of surface. Few counties show within similar 
limits such striking contrasts. So diverse are the features 
presented that different districts scarcely appear to belong 
to the same land. Soil, surface, flora, climate, and pro- 
ductions are all dissimilar, and even the inhabitants display 
divergent characteristics. 

The county naturally falls into three well-marked 
divisions, whose diflPerences are so striking that they have 
from time immemorial been regarded as three separate 
localities. There is a mountainous region in the north, 
an undulating champaign in the south, and an irregular 



SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 11 

and hilly peninsula in the west. The northern uplands 
were anciently called Blaenau Morganwg^ the table-land 
in the south was named Bro Morganwg^ and the western 
peninsula was spoken of as Gwyr or Gower. Bro Mor- 
ganwg is still frequently referred to as T Fro or the Vale. 
A line drawn from east to west across the centre of the 
county would divide the mountains from the plain. 





Bishopston Valley 



Gower might almost be regarded as a continuation of 
the plain out of which the waters of Swansea Bay have 
washed the connecting territory. 

Bro Morganwg comprises a tract of undulating land 
some 10 miles broad by 22 miles long. It is bordered 
on the south by the Bristol Channel and extends north- 
wards as far as Llantrissant ; eastwards and westwards 



12 GLAMORGAISrSHIRE 

it stretches from the Rhymney to the Ogmore. Shut 
in between the mountains and the sea, it' forms the 
Glamorganshire lowlands ; but its designation of the 
Vale of Glamorgan is somewhat misleading, for it is in 
reality an undulating and hilly plateau ranging from 
50 to 200 feet in altitude and rising in the centre to 
a table-land almost double that height. Seawards it 
terminates in a line of precipitous cliflFs. It is watered 
by its own streams, which have scored its surface with 
a number of valleys, and it enjoys its own climate. 
Except for the commerce which collects round the sea- 
ports of Cardiff and Barry, it is almost entirely devoted 
to agricultural purposes, for which it is extremely 
suitable. It has been termed the "Garden of Wales." 
Though fairly well timbered, it is not sufficiently varied 
in feature to be strikingly picturesque, except in the 
centre, where the green monotony of the landscape is 
broken by the pleasant valley of the Daw. But what 
it lacks in scenery it makes up for by the number of its 
medieval antiquities. Nearly every village has the crum- 
bling remains of a castle. 

Blaenau Morganwg is very different, the transition 
from the plain to the highlands being exceedingly 
abrupt. The mountains rise like a wall round the 
northern edge of the Vale. Their general aspect is stern 
and forbidding, but the real beauty of the county was 
formerly to be found in their silent and solitary recesses. 
Everywhere the hills are furrowed with deep and secluded 
valleys which were once luxuriant with foliage and lively 
with the splash of falling torrents. Now everything is 



SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 13 

changed. The district has become one vast workshop, 
and the landscape is blurred with the smoke of innumer- 
able collieries and furnaces. 

The mountain system of Glamorganshire is extremely- 
complicated. Broadly speaking all the Glamorganshire 
hills are buttresses to the still higher mountains of Brecon- 
shire. Though bold and precipitous they lack individuality, 
and baffle the observer by their multitudinous array. Their 
massed effect is, however, very striking. Roughly, these 
highlands fall into three principal groups, which for the 
sake of convenience may be termed the eastern, western, 
and central ranges. The central block is in plan a wedge- 
shaped mass of hills enclosed between the Nedd (Neath) 
and Cynon rivers. Right in the north at the apex of the 
triangle formed by these divergent streams rises the lofty 
summit of Craig-y-Llyn (1969 ft.), the monarch of 
Glamorganshire mountains, and radiating more or less 
southwards like the ribs of a fan from this common 
centre are a number of almost equally high spurs, Cefn 
Gwyngul (1489 ft.), Cefn Tadfernol (1692 ft.) and Cefn 
Rhondda (1567 ft.), Mynydd William Merrick (1769 ft.), 
Crug-yr-Afon and Mynydd Llangeinor (1859 ^^- ^^^ 
1755 ft.), Mynydd Caerau (1823 f^O? ^"^ ^^^^ Mawr 
(1560 ft.). On either side of this central cluster of 
mountains are a number of parallel ridges forming the 
eastern and western systems. Beyond the Cynon in the 
east, as we pass westward from the Rhymney, are Cefn 
Brithdir (1460 ft.), Cefn Gelligaer (1570 ft.), Cefn 
Merthyr (1292 ft.), and Mynydd Aberdare and Mynydd 
Merthyr (1346 ft. and 1336 ft.). On the west, on the 



14 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



other side of the Nedd, is the Graig-lwyd group, which 
at its highest point attains 1575 ft., Mynydd March 
Hywel (1371 ft.), Mynydd Alt-y-grug (1113 ft.), Cefti 
Gwrhyd (968 ft.), M;ynydd-y-Garth (1057 ft.), Bryn 
Mawr (1153 ft.), Mynydd-y-Gwair (1226 ft.), and Graig 
Fawr (883 ft.). Though this is a tolerably complete 
enumeration of the various folds into which the northern 




The Garth Mountain 



surface of the county is crumpled, it is by no means an 
exhaustive catalogue of all the hills which the county 
contains. Two eminences which are very conspicuous 
from the lowlands should be mentioned. They are the 
Garth mountain (1009 ft.), which lies to the north-west 
of Cardiff, and Mynydd Margam (1409 ft.), a very 
interesting hill which rises immediately behind the village 



SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 15 

of that name. The summits of all these hills are wild 
and desolate, and their bleak solitudes offer a striking 
contrast to the teeming valleys at their feet. Though a 
source of wealth to the mine owner, they are used by the 
farmer chiefly as sheep-runs. They abound everywhere 
in prehistoric antiquities. 

Gower, our third division, forms the western portion 
of Glamorganshire, and in its general features is sharply 




Mewslade Bay 

differentiated from the rest of the county. It exhibits, 
however, the same characteristic contrast between hill 
and plain. There is a mountainous district in the north 
which falls within the limits of the coalfield, and is now 
one of the most populous and busy localities in the shire ; 
and there is a sea-bound pastoral district in the south. The 
name is now generally restricted to this rocky peninsula 
which forms such an eccentric termination to the county 



16 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

on the west. It is a wild and solitary land almost sur- 
rounded by the sea. In measurement it is 1 8 miles long and 
8 miles broad, and has an acreage of 8o square miles. It is 
chiefly remarkable for its bold and diversified coast scenery. 
Few districts can show such an extensively serrated shore, 
for it has 45 miles of sea-board. Compared with the 
varied beauty of the cliffs, the interior is somewhat bald 
and featureless. A low ridge of hills — Cefn-y-Bryn — 
some 600 feet in height, runs diagonally across the penin- 
sula, and in the extreme west rises a ridge of bare and 
breezy downs of equal altitude. Though woods occa- 
sionally clothe the more sheltered sides of the cliffs, 
Gower as a whole is treeless. With the exception of 
one or two pretty glens its valleys and watercourses are 
few. Agriculture is the prevailing occupation, but the 
fields yield scanty crops compared with the prodigal 
harvests in the Vale of Glamorgan. It is in consequence 
a sparsely populated region, and the villages are remote 
and little visited except by tourists. Like the rest of the 
county the peninsula abounds in antiquities. 



5. Geology and SoiL 

The geological character of Glamorgan is comparatively 
simple. All the rocks have been formed by the action 
of water ; there are none of igneous origin. Apart from 
the alluvial deposits along the estuaries of the rivers, there 
are only five systems represented within the county, the 
Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Triassic, and Jurassic. 



Names op 
Systems 



Subdivisions 



Characters of Rocks 



Recent 
Pleistocene 



Pliocene 



Miocene 



Eocene 



Cretaceous 



Jurassic 



Triassic 



Permian 



Carboniferous 



Devonian 



> 

^ < Silurian 



Ordovician 



Cambrian 



Fre-Cambrian 



Metal Age Deposits 
Neolithic ,, 

Palaeolithic ,, 
Glacial ,, 

' Cromer Series 

Weybourne Crag 

Chillesford and Norwich Crags 

Red and Walton Crags 
V Coralline Crag 

Absent from Britain 

Fluviomarine Beds of Hampshire 

Bagshot Beds 

London Clay 

Oldhaven Beds, Woolwich and Reading 

"■ "let Sands [Groups , 

Upper Greensand and Gault 
Lower Greensand 
Weald Clay 
Hastings Sands 

Purbeck Beds 

Portland Beds 

Kimmeridge Clay 

Corallian Beds 

Oxford Clay and Kellaways Rock 

Cornbrash 

Forest Marble 

Great Oolite with Stonesfield Slate 

Inferior Oolite 

Lias — Upper, Middle, and Lower 

Rhaetic 
Keuper Marls 
Keuper Sandstone 
Upper Bunter Sandstone 
Bunter Pebble Beds 
Lower Bunter Sandstone 

Magnesian Limestone and Sandstone 

Marl Slate 

Lower Permian Sandstone 

Coal Measures 
Millstone Grit 
Mountain Limestone 
Basal Carboniferous Rocks 



Upper 

Mid 

Lower 



Devonian and Old Red Sand- 
stone 



Ludlow Beds 
Wenlock Beds 
Llandovery Beds 

Caradoc Beds 
Llandeilo Beds 
Arenig Beds 

Treinadoc Slates 

Lingula Flags 

Menevian Beds 

Harlech Grits and Llanberis Slates 

No dehnite classification yet made 



Superficial Deposits 



Sands chiefly 



Clays and Sands chiefly 



Chalk at top 
Sandstones, Mud and 
Clays below 



Shales, Sandstones and 
Oolitic Limestones 



Red Sandstones and 
Maris, Gypsum and Salt 



Red Sandstones and 
Magnesian Limestone 

Sandstones, Shales and 
Coals at top 
Sandstones in middle 
Limestone and Shales below 

Red Sandstones, 
Shales, Slates and Lime- 
stones 

Sandstones, Shales and 
Thin Limestones 

Shales, Slates, 
Sandstones and 
Thin Limestones 

Slates and 
Sandstones 



i Sandstones, 

-J Slates and 

I Volcanic Rocks 



GEOLOGY AND SOIL 17 

But the distribution of these various formations is so 
extremely unequal that the list may be virtually reduced 
to two — the Carboniferous and the Jurassic. Of these 
two the Carboniferous so largely predominates that seven- 
eighths of the surface of the shire comes under this 
classification. It will be seen that the geological map 
in its main features roughly follows the geographical 
divisions of the county. The whole of the northern high- 
lands consists of Coal Measures ; the Vale of G morgan 
is Lias ; and the peninsula of Gower is Mountain 
Limestone. The Silurian, Devonian, and Triassic forma- 
tions are only sparsely represented. Their rocks occur 
in patches, and form no very striking feature in the 
geological field. Taken in the order of their formation, 
the various systems will be found distributed over the 
following areas : — 

The Silurian rocks, though occurring in such large 
masses elsewhere in South Wales, are only very scantily 
exhibited in Glamorganshire. They are found on the 
extreme eastern verge of the county and nowhere else. 
On the banks of the Rhymney there is a small bed of 
shales, sandstones, and mudstones, which projects across 
the border from Monmouthshire. 

The Old Red Sandstone, which forms the bulk of 
the adjoining counties of Breconshire and Monmouth- 
shire, continues as far as the river TaflF, dips right under 
Glamorganshire in a south-westerly direction, and only 
reappears within the county as a small outcrop between 
Cardiff and Bridgend, and as a range of hills running 
across the surface of the peninsula of Gower. The 

w. G. 2 



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GEOLOGY AND SOIL 19 

depression caused by the disappearance of the Old Red 
Sandstone forms a trough in which the Coal Measures lie. 
The Carboniferous system is the prevailing formation 
of the county. All the massive hills of the north belong 
to it, and the vast area over which it extends is the cause 




Sandstone at Fairoak Farm, Roath Park 

of the great prosperity of the shire. The coal-bearing 
rocks, though lying above the Old Red Sandstone, do not 
rest immediately upon it. They are underlaid every- 
where by an intermediate bed of Mountain Limestone and 
Millstone Grit, which are also classified as Carboniferous 



20 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

rocks. Prior to the Carboniferous epoch, the Red Sand- 
stone hills of Breconshire formed the shore of some shallow 
and clear sea, and Glamorganshire was a submerged ledge 
of rock upon which a multitude of coral animals subse- 
quently laid down this thick floor of limestone. The 
limestone bed not only underlies the whole of the 
Glamorgan coalfield, but forms a thick rim round its 
southern edge. The deposit varies from 500 to lOOO 
feet in thickness. The rock is found elsewhere, besides 
at the bottom of the coal basin. It occurs immediately 
below the Lias in some portions of the Vale, where it 
occasionally breaks out on the surface. It forms some 
of the most prominent points along the coast, and is 
exposed as a long stretch of low rocks between Porthcawl 
and Sker Point. It again appears as the predominant 
geological feature in the peninsula of Gower, where it 
can be seen upheaved at a considerable angle in the bold 
cliffs which form the coast. Some of the cliffs in this 
district are characteristically perforated with caverns, 
which on their first exploration were found thickly strewn 
with the bones of extinct animals. 

Between the Mountain Limestone and the Coal 
Measures is a deposit of Millstone Grit varying from 
250 ft. to 1000 ft. in thickness. It comes to the surface 
at the foot of the hills stretching as a thin tract of 
territory between Caerphilly and Llantrissant. It appears 
again as a longish patch north of Bridgend. It is a coarse 
quartzose sandstone frequently used for millstones, but 
locally known in the coalfield as the " Farewell " rock. 
Its general position in Wales is at the base of the Coal 



GEOLOGY AND SOIL 21 

Measures, and the miner who reaches it regards it as a 
signal to abandon further search. 

The South Wales coalfield stretches from Pontypool 
to St Bride's Bay, and has an area of looo square miles, 
of which Glamorganshire possesses about half. The 
extreme length is 90 miles, and the breadth varies from 
21 miles in Glamorganshire to ij miles in Pembrokeshire. 
It rests in a sort of pear-shaped trough with the widest 
end towards the east. The greatest depth at which coal 
lies is calculated to be about 6650 feet. Across the basin 
run two anticlinal folds, one stretching from Risca to 
Aberavon, and the other from Cwm Neath to Kidwelly. 
Swansea Bay makes a large encroachment upon the 
Glamorganshire coalfield, and a colliery near the shore 
at Port Talbot is worked beneath the Channel. Though 
the Coal Measures have an estimated thickness of 7000 ft., 
the actual seams of coal vary only from i to 6 ft. 
thick, and are thinnest and most numerous in the west. 
The seams are divided one from another by intervening 
masses of sandstone, which in some cases are as much 
as 500 ft. thick. The layers of sandstone are again 
interspersed with deposits of shale, which measure in 
thickness from 10 to 50 feet. Most seams of coal rest 
upon a co-extensive cushion of clay, which varies from 
6 inches to 10 feet in depth. This underclay is in South 
Wales, though not elsewhere, an invariable accompani- 
ment of the coal, and is believed by some to be the soil 
in which the vegetation forming the coal originally grew, 
as in some cases it contains rootlets. It is a soft sandy 
shale extensively used in the manufacture of fire-bricks. 



22 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

The absence of soda and potash salts, possibly abstracted 
by the plant life which once flourished above it, preserves 
it from fusion when exposed to the action of heat. 

The coal seams, which lie in three series, are known 
as the Upper Coal Measures or Upper Sandstones, the 
Pennant Grit, covering most of the coalfield, and the 
Lower Coal Measures. In the Upper Coal Measures 
the coal is highly bituminous and inflammable, and is 
used chiefly for domestic purposes, and for the production 
of coal gas and coke. In the Pennant Grit series the 
coal is much less plentiful and is sandwiched in between 
beds of hard sandstone, which are frequently quarried for 
building and paving. This coal readily cakes and is 
employed largely in the manufacture of " patent fuel." 
The Lower Coal Measures produce the famous steam 
coal, so invaluable for boiler furnaces. It contains a 
much larger percentage of carbon than the inflammable 
varieties, and produces in consequence a much fiercer 
heat and less smoke. Glamorganshire supplies virtually 
all the larger navies of the world with their fuel. As 
the coal seams spread towards the north-west the coal 
becomes still less bituminous in character, and to the north 
of Swansea in the valleys of the Tawe and Twrch it is 
almost purely anthracitic and smokeless. 

Though some violent upheaval has lifted the Coal 
Measures to their present position as lofty hills, there is 
little doubt that they were first laid down at the bottom 
of some lagoon into which a number of muddy streams 
were constantly discharging a large quantity of earthy 
sediment. Rank vegetation sprang up on the more 



GEOLOGY AND SOIL 23 

elevated portions of these swamps, which, owing to their 
unstable nature, subsequently sank. The plants which 
covered these spongy deposits consisted chiefly of gigantic 
mosses and ferns. The forests so formed disappeared 
or were renewed as the land fell or rose. The mud 
eventually hardened into shales, and the coal seams are 
the compressed remnants of these vanished jungles. Some 
violent shrinkage of the earth's crust in ages long subse- 
quent to its formation raised the coalfield to its present 
altitude. The valleys which score the surface of the hills 
are not the folds into which the hills were thrown, but 
the furrows ploughed out of their surface by the torrents 
which coursed down their sides. The streams which 
now wind their way at the bottom of the gorges are the 
shrunken survivals of these ancient rivers. The Lower 
Coal Measures are rich in ironstone and contain a 
number of marine shells and Entomostraca. In the Upper 
Measures the only fossil found, other than the remains of 
plant life, is the shell Anthracosia. 

The Triassic rocks which occur within the county 
are found chiefly as patches of dolomitic conglomerate 
near Llandaff, St Fagan's, Coychurch, Pyle, and Newton 
Nottage, and are overlaid by Keuper Red Marls in 
the neighbourhood of Bridgend. In the conglomerate 
of Newton Nottage have been found the footprints of 
some gigantic three-toed bird or reptile. A slab from the 
district bearing this impression is now exhibited in the 
Cardiff Museum. The geological formation of Penarth 
Head, where the rocks also belong to this series, is 
extremely interesting. At the base of the cliff is a 



24 



GLAMORGAN^SHIRE 



foundation of red Triassic marls, and upon these reposes 
a 28-foot bed of green Rhaetic marls. Above this may 
be seen a larger bed of black shales, 24 feet thick, con- 
taining a bone-bed rich in the scales and teeth of fishes 
and reptiles. This is capped, as the coast trends towards 
Lavernock Point, with a deposit of white Lias, 18 feet in 



• rnja 




Penarth Cliffs 

thickness, and composed of grey and brown sandy shales. 
The marls are quarried in the neighbourhood of Llandough 
and are ground up for brick-making. 

The Lias of Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire is 
represented by the Lower Lias only, and borders the 
southern part of these counties and the South Wales 



GEOLOGY AND SOIL 25 

coalfield. It occurs more or less in patches, the greatest 
development being in the district known as the Vale of 
Glamorgan, between Barry and Bridgend, where remark- 
ably fine sections can be seen in the cliffs along the seashore. 

All along the coast from Lavernock Point to the 
mouth of the Ogmore river the Lower Lias shales and 
grey limestone rest upon the Rhaetic beds, and con- 
stitute the long series of cliffs which form the shore 
line of the Vale of Glamorgan. These rocks extend 
inwards as far as Cowbridge, and compose the floor of 
the Vale. At Southerndown they form a conglomerate 
which represents an ancient beach, and may be seen 
resting on the upturned edge of the Mountain Limestone. 
As may be observed from an inspection of the cliffs the 
stratification of the Lias rocks is extremely regular. The 
rocks consist of bands of blue limestone six inches in 
thickness, between which are interposed layers of shale, 
sometimes called, on account of their perfect lamination, 
paper shales. The White Lias series contain a large 
number of fossils, including shells and the star-fish 
Ophiolepsts Damesii. From the Blue Lias rocks have 
been obtained more than fifty species of corals, and a 
great many Ammonites. Saurian remains are also not 
infrequent, Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus being found in 
the large quarries attached to the cement works at Penarth. 

As one travels westward the thickness of the Lias in- 
creases. The total depth in the district round Newport is 
only about 30 feet, at Penarth and Lavernock the deposits 
attain a thickness of about 130 feet, but in the neighbour- 
hood of Aberthaw they reach several hundred feet. 




Section of the Lower Lias at Lavernock 



GEOLOGY AND SOIL 27 

Generally speaking, the deposits consist of layers of 
blue or blue-grey argillaceous limestone alternating with 
blue, white, or yellowish shales and clays, the blue shales 
often containing notable quantities of iron pyrites. In the 
east the clays and shales predominate and the deposits 
attain their most aluminous character ; westward they 
become more siliceous and also more calcareous, the beds 
of stone greatly predominating. 

Surface deposits of alluvial matter occur at the estuaries 
of all the rivers and along the valleys of the Nedd and Tawe. 
Extensive tracts of marshy land have been formed between 
the mouth of the Rhymney and Penarth Head, and at 
the foot of the hills in the neighbourhood of Aberavon. 
There is a patch of undrained bog at Crymlyn between 
the estuaries of the Nedd and Tawe, and some extensive 
salt marshes line the southern shores of the Burry Inlet. 
The movements of glaciers in the county have left some 
traces. The accumulations of sand and gravel which 
are found in most of the river valleys, though generally 
attributed to excessive rainfalls in prehistoric times, may 
really be of glacial origin. There is a glacial drift near 
Cardiff consisting of pebbles and boulders of Old Red 
Sandstone and other rocks lying immediately to the north. 
A number of "erratics" from the local Carboniferous 
Limestone and Millstone Grit are scattered about the 
Ely valley. But the most interesting deposit is at Pencoed, 
where well-polished boulders of rocks foreign to the 
district have been found, which microscopic examination 
has shown to have been brought from North Wales by 
glacial action. 



28 GLAMORGAN^SHIRE 

Large boulders of Millstone Grit or Conglomerate 
are also frequently met with in Gower. 

Iron ore is found in the form of haematite in deposits 
amongst the Mountain Limestone, and a great deal of 
ironstone is obtainable amongst the lower Coal Measures. 
The chief iron-ore district lies in the neighbourhood of 
Merthyr, Dowlais, and Aberdare; and deposits have been 
worked near Pentyrch. Gypsum occurs in small beds 
near Penarth. 

The soil of the different localities varies very con- 
siderably both in character and value. In the Vale of 
Glamorgan it is a deep rich loam of unusual fertility and 
light to handle. It is peculiarly suitable for the production 
of wheat. The underlying substratum of limestone adds 
considerably to its quality, but gives it a very stony 
appearance when turned over. The north, on the other 
hand, is a very barren region. The damp peaty earth 
with which the mountains are thinly covered is very 
poor, and the drier patches are too gravelly to be of any 
service to the agriculturist. In Gower again the soil, 
though it varies a good deal, as a rule lacks both depth 
and virtue. It ranges from a loose red earth to a thick 
yellowish clay, and is occasionally interspersed with beds 
of sand. In general it yields only a moderate return for 
the labour involved in its tillage. 



WATERSHED AND RIVERS 29 

6. Watershed and Rivers. 

Glamorganshire is particularly well watered. It 
abounds in rivers, though none of them are of any 
great size. They are all short, and take their rise either 
within the county or else amongst the Brecon hills just 
beyond its borders. The watershed lies entirely in the 
north, and all the streams run southwards and empty 
themselves into the Bristol Channel. They were at 
one time distinguished for the picturesqueness of their 
surroundings, but their beauty has now disappeared before 
the pitiless ravages of industrial progress. None of the 
rivers are in themselves of much value as waterways, for 
they are narrow, rapid, and shallow. They have neverthe- 
less played an important part in the industrial development 
of the county, for their valleys are the commercial arteries 
of the district, and the estuaries into which they empty 
themselves have provided the harbours which now place 
the mineral wealth of Glamorgan at the disposal of the 
world. The rivers may be conveniently regarded as 
falling into three distinct groups, which form the eastern, 
western, and central drainage systems of the county. 
The easterly basin comprises the Rhymney, Taff, and 
Ely rivers, which flow in a south-easterly direction. The 
westerly basin consists of the Nedd, Tawe, and Loughor, 
which flow south-west. The central basin is drained by 
the Ogmore, Kenfig, and Avon, the first two of which 
flow southwards, and the last south-west. A subordinate 
group of streams, of which the principal constituent is 
the Daw, drain the Vale of Glamorgan. 



30 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

The Rhymney has its birth in Breconshire, but for 
the remainder of its career it forms the dividing line 
between Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire. Receiv- 
ing the Bargoed brook on its way, it follows a fairly 
consistent course southwards ; but, before it eventually 
reaches the Channel, it has to make an awkward detour 
to the east to work round the obstructing ridge of Cefn 
Carnau. The valley through which it flows, though 
exceptionally rich in minerals, is bare and otherwise 
lacking in interest. At Caerphilly, however, there stands 
at the entrance of an adjoining vale one of the most 
famous of the ruined castles of Wales. Below Caerphilly 
the scenery improves until, leaving its gorge, the river 
twists itself as a muddy estuary across the flats of Cardiff". 

Unlike the solitary Rhymney, the TaflF is a veritable 
family of rivers. Rising as a twin stream in Breconshire, 
it follows a double course as far as the large industrial 
town of M.erthyr, where the greater TaflF and lesser Taff 
unite. At Quaker's Yard the river receives a further 
accession to its waters in another Bargoed brook, and at 
Abercynon its volume is again swollen by the Cynon 
river, which likewise descending from the Brecon high- 
lands flows past the large and populous towns of Aberdare 
(which stands on one of its feeders) and Mountain Ash. 
Another stream falling into the Cynon before it joins the 
TafiF is the Aman ; and the Clydach, which waters a very 
busy little glen, reaches the TaflF later. At Pontypridd 
the TaflF is joined by two other important tributaries, the 
Rhondda Fawr and the Rhondda Fach. Both of these 
streams have their source in the spurs of Craig-y-Llyn, 



WATERSHED AND RIVERS 31 

and pass through one of the most populous districts in 
South Wales. The valleys through which they flow- 
contain some of the finest steam coal in the world, and 
they have in consequence of its discovery undergone a 
remarkable transformation. The two Rhondda rivers 
coalesce at Forth, and empty their united current into 




The Taft 

{^showing the Garth in the distance) 

the TafF at Pontypridd. The position of Pontypridd at 
the confluence of these valleys makes it a sort of general 
clearing-house for the vast traflSc of the district. It 
borrows its name from a remarkable one-arched bridge 
which a local mason named Edwards built in 1750 across 
the Taff; Five miles above Cardiff the Taff emerges from 
the mountains and makes its way across the level plain to 



32 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

the sea. Before the river reaches CardiflF it glides past 
the peaceful city of LlandafF, whose rural seclusion 
conceals its long and chequered history. The cathedral 
is pleasantly situated on the banks of the stream. The 
wide tidal estuary by which the TafF finally discharges its 
waters into the Channel has given Cardiff the opportunity 
of becoming one of the largest ports in the kingdom. 

The Ely river is a short stream rising amongst the 
hills behind the mining village of Ton-yr-Efail. For a 
short distance it wanders amongst the mountains, and then 
uniting itself with the Mychedd brook it creeps through a 
narrow pass near Llantrissant (Llantrisaint) into the Vale 
of Glamorgan. The town of Llantrissant is perched on 
a knoll above the river, and its position at the mouth of 
the defile made it in medieval times a place of much 
strategical importance, and its castle was strongly fortified. 
Below Llantrissant the Ely receives the Afon Clun, and 
then meanders southwards across the Vale to Peterston, 
where there are the remains of another castle. At 
Peterston it suddenly turns eastwards, and flowing past 
the castle and battle-field of St Fagan's reaches Ely, 
where it again bends southwards and finally finds its 
way into the estuary of the Taff at Penarth, where it 
forms a natural harbour. Some fine docks have been 
constructed beneath the headland to supplement the 
commercial conveniences of the river. 

The rivers of Mid-Glamorgan, like their eastern and 
western neighbours, run a short impetuous course amongst 
the hills before they seek a more sluggish channel in the 
plains on their way to the sea. In number they are 



WATERSHED AND RIVERS 33 

three — the Ogmore, the Kenfig, and the Avon. The 
Ogmore collects together a number of converging streams 
which have their origin amongst the cluster of lofty hills 
which are massed together in the centre of the county. 
The Ogmore proper, like the Taff, is a combination of 
dual streams, the Ogmore Fawr and the Ogmore Fach, 
which rise on either side of Carn Fawr (a spur of the 
central hills) and unite at Blackmill. At Abergarw the 
joint river receives the turbulent waters of the Garw, 
which comes rushing down the valley between Mynydd 
Llangeinor and Mynydd Caerau. At St Bride's it effects 
a junction with a less impetuous but more important 
tributary, the Llynfi, which rises on the western side of 
Mynydd Caerau, and passes the busy mining centres of 
Maesteg and Tondu. Thenceforth the Ogmore flows 
a placid stream through the town of Bridgend, below 
which it unites with the waters of the Ewenny, and then 
empties itself into the Bristol Channel near Sutton by 
an estuary remarkable for its vast accumulations of sand. 
The old priory church on the banks of the Ewenny, 
and the crumbling ruins of Ogmore Castle near the 
estuary, invest it with considerable antiquarian interest. 
The Alun brook, which is a tributary of the Ewenny, 
cuts its way through a small but singularly picturesque 
gorge to join the larger stream, and furnishes the land- 
scape with a very striking and unexpected feature. The 
Kenfie is little better than a streamlet, and descends from 
the steep slopes of Mynydd Margam to push its way to 
the sea through the sandy wilderness known as the Kenfig 
Burrows. The Avon is a larger river, which rises as a 
w. G. 3 



34 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



mountain brook on the slopes of Crug-yr-Afon, and 
joining itself to the Corwg — a stream descending from 
the lofty spurs of Craig-y-Llyn — strikes out a south- 
westerly course for Swansea Bay. Before discharging 
its waters here at Aberavon it collects two other 
tributaries, the Pelena and the DyfFryn. The course 
of the river is walled in all the way by bare and rugged 




Ogmore Castle 



hill sides, and its banks are lined with collieries and 
iron-works, which send down their products for shipment 
to the extensive dock at Port Talbot at the mouth of 
the river. 

The rivers of West Glamorgan are the Nedd, the 
Tawe, and the Loughor, and they all flow more or less 
in a south-westerly direction. The Nedd, the most 



WATERSHED AND RIVERS 35 

famous of the three, may be said to be the queen of 
Glamorganshire rivers. It wins its popular reputation, 
however, chiefly before it enters the county, when still 
a mere cluster of mountain burns. The four streams 
which unite to form the " full fed " river — the Hepste, 
the Mellte, the Nedd, and the Perddyn — all rise amongst 
the solitudes of the Breconshire Vans, and are celebrated 
not only for their wild and romantic surroundings, but 
for the numerous cascades in which they abound. But if 
these earlier beauties belong to Breconshire, Glamorgan- 
shire can still claim some share in making the river what 
it is, for it furnishes for its channel a still beautiful, but 
sadly tarnished valley. The course of the river is short. 
Collecting its scattered sources together it enters the 
county at Pont Neath Vaughan and flows with a fairly 
straight course south-west into Swansea Bay. Passing on 
its way the mining villages of Glyn Neath and Resolven 
it allies itself at Aberdulais with its most considerable 
tributary, the Dulais, which flows down to join it from 
the heights of Mynydd-y-Drum, and below the town of 
Neath it is further augmented by the Clydach. On its 
right bank a little below the town stand the grimy ruins 
of Neath Abbey. At the busy little port of Briton 
Ferry the valley again narrows and the river makes its 
escape into Swansea Bay through a bold and picturesque 
defile. Two small waterfalls occur on the course of the 
Nedd, and on the Melincourt brook near Resolven there 
is a slender cataract some 80 feet in height. 

The Tawe also rises amongst the Breconshire Vans, 
and pursuing a course almost parallel with that of its 

3—2 



36 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

sister river the Nedd, falls into Swansea Bay at Swansea. 
Its chief tributaries are the Twrch — an impetuous stream 
which comes down from the Black Mountains and meets 
it at Ystalyfera — and another Clydach which joins it at 
Clydach. The Twrch marks practically the northern 
limits of the coalfield, and in its valley are situated most 
of the valuable anthracite seams. The valley of the 
Tawe is now a scene of industrial desolation crammed 
with smelting works. The capital of this sulphurous 
region is Landore. At Swansea the estuary of the Tawe 
forms a very fine entrance to the large and spacious docks 
which belong to the town. 

The Loughor is the only Glamorganshire river 
which rises in Carmarthenshire, and it remains in part 
a Carmarthenshire stream throughout, for it forms the 
boundary between that county and Glamorganshire. 
The only contribution which Glamorganshire makes to 
its waters is the little river Dulais, which rises on 
the slopes of Mynydd-y-Gwair, but another stream, 
compounded of the Afon Lliw and the Afon Llan, falls 
into its estuary below the town of Loughor. Some 
miles before the Loughor joins the sea it forms a long 
and shallow lagoon which abruptly narrows at Loughor 
town, and opening again into a wide and sandy estuary 
changes its name to the Burry Inlet. 

The streams which water the Vale of Glamorgan are 
the Daw river and the Cadoxton and Colhugh brooks. 
The Daw runs a short but very picturesque course from 
Llansannor to the sea. Passing the old-fashioned town 
of Cowbridge it winds its way through a wide and 



WATERSHED AND RIVERS 87 

prettily wooded vale, which is sprinkled with the remains 
of ancient castles. Picking up the Llancarfan brook, 
which scoops its way through a deep defile past the site 
of the ancient monastery of Llancarfan, it finally empties 
itself into the sea by a wide and marshy estuary at 
Aberthaw. Aberthaw was once a small port, but is now 
only a village. An ancient harbour is said to have once 
existed also at the mouth of the Colhugh brook, which 
flows into the Channel below Llantwit Major, but all 
trace of it has vanished. The business which has forsaken 
the Daw and the Colhugh has, however, come to the 
Cadoxton river, for at its mouth have been created the 
gigantic docks of Barry. 

The streams which drain the peninsula of Gower 
are few and trivial. They are the Clyne river, which 
flows across the eastern end of the peninsula and falls 
into Swansea Bay; the Ilston brook, which waters the 
centre and empties itself into Oxwich Bay ; and the Burry 
brook in the western extremity, which flows northwards 
and joins the Burry Inlet near Cheriton. 



7. Natural History. 

Geology shows us that the surface of the earth has 
at various times undergone alterations and changes of 
a stupendous nature. Great mountain chains have been 
elevated, new seas have been formed, vast land-masses 
have disappeared. Some of these changes are exemplified 
in our own country. We know, for example, that at 



38 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

one time — and that, geologically speaking, at no very 
remote period — Britain was not insular, but formed part 
of the European continent. In the caves of Derbyshire, 
Devon, Gov^^er, and many other places are found the 
bones of extinct animals identical with those disinterred 
in neighbouring continental countries, or dredged up from 
the bed of the North Sea. Again, in many places around 
our coasts are to be seen, at extreme low water, the 
remains of forests buried beneath the sea. Though just 
off the west coast of Ireland the sea bottom sinks rapidly 
to very deep soundings, the North Sea is everywhere 
very shallow, and if London could be placed in it, the 
dome of St Paul's would be seen standing well above its 
surface. Great Britain and Ireland are thus examples of 
what are known to geologists as " recent continental 
islands," and subsidence, erosion, and other geological 
changes have turned dry land into the North Sea, and 
broad river valleys into the Bristol and English Channels. 
But, at some earlier period, when still forming part of 
the continent, our land was for a time submerged. The 
existing fauna and flora destroyed by this subsidence had 
thus to be replaced from the continental lands lying to the 
south-east. Slowly these new immigrants worked their 
way north-westward as the land again rose and afforded 
suitable conditions, but as it was not long before separation 
occurred and Britain became insular, not all the species 
existing on the continent were able to establish themselves 
in our land. We should thus expect to find that those 
parts of the country nearest the continent were richer in 
species and those furthest off poorer, and this proves to be 



NATURAL HISTORY 39 

the case both with plants and animals. Britain has fewer 
species than France and Belgium ; and Ireland, which 
was probably separated still earlier, has fewer than 
Britain. 

Both plants and animals depend for their existence 
upon suitable climatic conditions and upon a favourable 
environment. The British Isles are not of sufficient 
extent to exhibit great climatic diversity, but they have 
considerable variety of physical feature. The consequence 
is that much the same plants and animals are to be found 
in different parts of the kingdom where the same physical 
conditions prevail. The absence of any particular species 
in a locality where it might naturally be looked for, is 
generally due to accidental or artificial causes. Other 
things being equal, those places enjoy the greatest advan- 
tage from a naturalist's point of view which lie nearest to 
those regions whence the original stock was derived. As 
the stream of migration was from the south-east, the 
southern counties are usually the richest in objects of 
natural history. Glamorgan occupies a fairly good 
geographical position in this respect, and its physical 
peculiarities have made it a suitable habitation for the 
many different kinds of wild life which have from time to 
time reached its shores. Mountain, plain, and seashore 
all have their own special denizens, and there are still 
large tracts of uncultivated and sparsely-populated territory, 
where they can flourish undisturbed. In one respect the 
naturalist has reason to complain that the county has been 
unfortunate. Some of its most secluded recesses, once the 
favourite haunts of bird, beast, and flower, have in recent 



40 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

years undergone vigorous commercial exploitation, with 
the result that many interesting things have been destroyed 
or greatly reduced in numbers. The streams especially 
have suffered much by the pollution of their waters, and 
the fish for which they were once famous have disappeared. 
Generally speaking, however, the fauna of Glamorganshire 
is well up to the average in interest. Most of the species 
met with in other counties are represented somewhere 
within its borders. The red deer, however, once common 
and still found in the opposite highlands of Somerset and 
Devon, does not now roam the hills of Glamorgan. The 
wild cat has been exterminated, the polecat is rare, the 
otter has been greatly reduced in numbers, and the badger 
now is not very often met with. The seals which once 
frequented the shores of the Severn for the sake of the 
salmon have abandoned their visits. Seven, at least, of 
the twelve species of English bat are found in the county. 
There are the usual common rodents, but the hare is 
scarce, and the water vole is not common. The brown 
rat, unknown in England before the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, is of course the common species of 
the county, but the black rat still occurs. 

Birds, except in the colliery districts, where they find 
little shelter and many enemies, are fairly numerous, 
though they only exist in any very great variety in special 
localities. The singularly diversified character of the 
county is favourable to a miscellaneous bird life, but the 
destruction of much of the woodland has deprived it of 
some of its earlier wealth in this respect. Of the birds of 
prey the peregrine falcon, the buzzard, and the long-eared 



NATURAL HISTORY 



41 



owl are occasional visitants. The merlin is sometimes 
seen. The greater and lesser spotted woodpecker breed 
in the county, but not in great numbers. The nightingale 
is reported to have been sometimes met with, but all 
attempts to naturalise it have failed. The sea coast is 
the most interesting district to the ornithologist. The 









Kenfig Pool 



neighbourhood of Worms Head in particular is the breed- 
ing ground of a prodigious number of sea-fowl, which 
nest in these solitudes. Amongst the less common kinds 
of waders and swimmers to be met with are the great 
crested grebe, the great black-backed gull, and the stormy 
petrel. The cormorant is frequently to be observed 
perched on the ledges of the clijfiFs, but the bif.tern, once 



42 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

fairly common, is now very rare, and only comes during 
hard winters. 

The rivers have been almost entirely denuded of their 
former occupants. Even dace and chub have disappeared. 
Curious changes in the live-stock of streams and pools 
sometimes occur from natural causes. Kenfig Pool was 
once noted for the immense quantity of pike it contained, 
but none are to be found there now. The naturalist will 
however find in the products of the shores some com- 
pensation for what he has lost in the rivers. The sandy 
creeks and rock pools of the Gower peninsula in particular 
will provide him with numerous and varied specimens 
of marine life. The curious little blenny, which spends 
half its time out of the water, is occasionally found in 
Swansea Bay, and there, too, are sometimes captured 
the sword-fish, the globe-fish, and the flying-fish. The 
limestone coast of Gower abounds in Crustacea and 
moUusca of all kinds. 

The entomologist will find plenty to interest him in 
Glamorganshire. The warrens of Merthyr Mawr, the 
Crymlyn burrows and bog, and the sandhills of Oxwich 
Bay have always been the favourite preserves of the insect 
hunter. Butterflies and moths in great variety are to 
be found in the Vale of Glamorgan and in the Gower 
peninsula. Some of the rarer specimens, however, only 
make their appearance during favourable summers. 

The flora of Glamorgan is much more abundant and 
varied than the fauna. Some species common here are 
only of local occurrence elsewhere. The plant life of a 
locality is determined by its soil as much as by climatic 



NATURAL HISTORY 43 

and physical considerations. Both the diversity of its 
physical structure and its mixed geological character have 
made the county peculiarly rich in the variety of its 
botanical specimens. In descending from the hills to the 
plains, or to the rich and sheltered valleys, one is struck at 
once by the luxuriance of the vegetation displayed. It is 
like coming from a desert to a garden. The peculiarities 
of the maritime region are again very discernible. In 
approaching the coast one becomes aw^are of the proximity 
of the sea long before it is reached. Trees are scarce 
and stunted. A new set of flow^ering plants replaces the 
old favourites of wood and meadow. Grasses, reeds, and 
rushes straggle along the sand and pebbles. The influences 
of soil are equally marked. The elevated limestone tracts 
around Morlais Castle show a much more exuberant plant 
life than the ridges of Pennant Grit on the other side of 
the valley of the TafF; and the flora of the hard limestone 
headlands of Gower is distinct in many particulars from 
that of the softer lias rocks which fringe the Vale of 
Glamorgan. Even within the same geological area 
diflferences can be noted. The white down of the cotton 
grass shows in great patches on the boggy sides of the 
hills but does not appear on their rocky summits ; and the 
grasses and lichens which cling to the cliffs within reach 
of the spray are very diflFerent from the dwarf shrubs and 
rushes which cover the sand dunes, or from the plants on 
the salt marshes overflowed by the tide. Roughly speak- 
ing there are three well-defined botanical zones — the hills 
and valleys of the Coal Measures, the Vale, and the sea 
coast, each with its own characteristic vegetation. The 



44 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

mountains frequently exhibit a sub-alpine element in the 
flora, and the valleys are specially distinguished by the rich- 
ness of their bramble growths. These are extraordinarily 
abundant : of the 190 forms of Rubus known to Britain, 
nearly 60 are found in the Rhondda and Cynon valleys. 
The Vale is the garden of Glamorgan. In the spring 
the banks and meadows are a blaze of colour. Here 
lime-loving plants abound, and Clematis vitalha is a great 
feature of the hedges and woods. The forest trees chiefly 
seen in the fields are the ash, beech, elm, and sycamore, 
whilst the oak, birch, alder, fir, and larch clothe the sides 
of the hills. The wych elm is believed to be a native 
in Glamorgan and is said to stand the sea air better 
than any other tree except the sycamore, which likewise 
flourishes freely. 

The plants of the sea-coast, though not so showy, are, 
however, botanically the most interesting. The marshes, 
bogs, sand and shingle, and the lias and limestone cliffs, 
present a flora of great richness and variety. The wind- 
tossed sandhills near Kenfig and Merthyr Mawr are 
carpeted with miniature briars and brambles, and nowhere 
does the viper's bugloss grow as it does on these dunes. 
About Nash Point is to be seen the tuberous thistle, 
Cnicus tuber osusy elsewhere native only in Wiltshire, and 
near the coast the rare fen-orchid [Liparis Loeselii) has 
been met with. The peninsula of Gower may be almost 
regarded as a region apart, so special is its vegetation. 
It is a botanist's paradise. Here is found the one species 
in these islands peculiar to Glamorgan, Draba ai'z.oides^ 
the yellow "whitlow-grass" of the Alps and Pyrenees. 



NATURAL HISTORY 45 

Its cousin, Draba [Erophild] verna^ is more common. 
At Park Mill is the hairy cress, Arah'is hirsuta^ and on 
the sands in the neighbourhood appears the sea heron's- 
bill, Erodium mar'itimum^ and occasionally the sea-barley 
or squirrel-tail, Hordeum maritimum. The yellow rock- 
rose, Helianthemum canum^ is found on Cefn-y-Bryn and 
Worms Head, and the meadow clary [Salvia pratensis) 
and Osmunda regalis are amongst the less common plants 
to be met with in the peninsula. Sometimes a foreigner 
has been introduced into the county by accident. One 
of the oraches, Atriplex pedunculata^ has been discovered 
at Aberavon, borne thither probably in ballast. 

The shores of Glamorgan are not as a rule so richly 
draped with seaweed as other parts of the coast. Viva 
porphyra^ however, is plentiful off Gower, and is turned 
by the natives into laver bread, and together with samphire 
[Crithmum maritimum) is sold as an edible commodity in 
Swansea market. 



8. A Peregrination of the Coast. 

The seaboard of Glamorganshire is remarkable both 
for its extent and variety. Throughout the 88 miles of 
frontage which it exposes to the sea it can furnish an 
illustration of almost every possible coastal characteristic. 
But though its features are so varied they lie for the most 
part grouped together in fairly uniform sections. Roughly 
speaking there are three distinct districts — the rock-bound 
fringe of the Vale of Glamorgan, the sandy shores of 



46 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Swansea Bay, and the rugged and serrated peninsula of 
Gower. The scenery, though nowhere wanting in 
interest, is artistically unequal. It improves as one 
proceeds down channel. The long lines of cliffs which 
for the most part border the plain are almost monotonous 
in their regularity, and lack both the background of 
encircling mountains which give such charm to the fine 
panorama of Swansea Bay, and the romantic fascination 
of the wild and jagged rocks of Gower. It is impossible 
to do more than give a very sketchy outline of this 
extensive and interesting region. 

From the mouth of the Rhymney, whose tortuous 
estuary separates the coast of Glamorganshire from that 
of Monmouthshire, a long and featureless expanse of 
alluvial deposit stretches to the mouth of the Taff, round 
which is gathered the great city and port of Cardiff. 
Extensive docks have been cut in the moors, and a forest 
of factory chimneys mingles in the picture with the masts 
of the shipping in the harbour. On the other side of the 
estuary of the Taff, which also receives the waters of the 
Ely river, rises the fine headland of Penarth. It stretches 
like a gigantic wind-screen across the mouth of the port, 
and beneath its shelter vessels can ride at anchor in 
the roads in perfect security. Some smaller docks at 
Penarth lie immediately below the headland and furnish 
further accommodation for the immense business of the 
port. The headland carries no lighthouse, but the church 
on the summit of the hill is a well-recognised landmark 
both with the sailor and the landsman. Penarth, besides 
being a favourite residential suburb of Cardiff, has become 



A PEREGRINATION OF THE COAST 47 

something of a watering-place and possesses a pier and 
promenade. Prominent though Penarth Head is, it is not 
seen by vessels coming up channel, for the coast trends 
for 2^ miles directly southwards to Lavernock Point 
before it bends westwards. The cliffs between these two 
promontories are of great geological interest. Lavernock 
Point, like Penarth Head, is unlighted, for the channel is 



"^^ t/t Hvs,* MA^v'vnsm- 





Penarth 



sufficiently illuminated by a lighthouse on the Flat Holm, 
which stands in mid-channel three miles south-east of the 
point, and forms an appendage to the port of Cardiff. One 
and a half miles south-west of Lavernock, lying in close 
proximity to the shore, is the small island of Sully, a low 
ledge of grass-grown rock carrying on its summit a small 
earthwork. A flat but rocky shore fringes the mainland 



48 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

for three miles between here and the neighbouring Barry 
Island, and midway, standing back from the sea in a 
cluster of trees, is the village of Sully, where are the 
foundations of a castle. At Barry the land again abruptly 
rises, and the ridge terminates in the cliflPs of Barry Island, 
now insular only in name, for an embankment carrying 
both a road and a railway connects it with the shore. 

A strange transformation has taken place in recent years 
in Barry and its neighbourhood. From a rural hamlet it 
has become a flourishing port, for a magnificent series of 
docks has been made beneath the shelter of the island, 
which forms a natural breakwater, and a large town has 
grown up on the hilly slopes behind the docks. The 
district still possesses some vestiges of antiquity ; on the 
island are the remains of a small chapel, and on the 
mainland is the ruined gateway of a castle. The island is 
indented by a little sandy bay, which provides the public 
with a bathing place. A small arm of the sea, which 
once formed the straits, separates Treharne's Point, the 
most westerly extremity of the island, from Coldknap 
Point on the mainland, and beyond the latter opens the 
charming little bay of Porthkerry, floored with pebbles 
and walled in with limestone cliffs and banks of foliage. 
On the top of the cliffs is an entrenchment known as the 
Bulwarks. A wall of lias cliffs, so regular in stratification 
that it looks like a piece of unfinished masonry, extends 
without interruption from Porthkerry to the mouth of 
the Daw, where a cluster of homely-looking cottages 
forms the village of Aberthaw. An occasional sloop 
resting on the oozy banks of the estuary and awaiting a 



A PEREGRINATION OF THE COAST 49 

cargo of lime is the only reminder that Aberthaw was 
once a port. On the other side of the stream a wide 
promontory of low-lying land, called the Lays, spreads as 
far as Breaksea Point, the most southerly extremity of 
Glamorgan. Beyond the point Linipert Bay, overlooked 
by the village of Gileston, divides the promontory from 
Summerhouse Point, where is another ancient encamp- 
ment. Here the cliffs again rise and run with but little 
intermission as far as the estuary of the Ogmore, a 
distance of 1 1 miles. Several interesting features, how- 
ever, occur in the almost unbroken line of cliff. Two 
miles beyond the Summerhouse, the Colhugh brook finds 
its way through a narrow vale into the sea. On the 
summit of the cliff overhanging the left bank of the stream 
are some more earthworks, known as the Castle Ditches, 
and a mile up the glen lies the ancient town of Llantwit 
Major, the site of a famous Celtic monastery. A mile 
beyond the mouth of the brook are the Tresilian caves, a 
series of caverns scooped by the waves out of the sides of 
the cliff and once notorious as a resort for smugglers. 
Standing on the cliffs beyond the caves is St Donat's 
Castle, a modernised medieval residence of some repute, 
and in a glen between the castle and its watch tower is 
St Donat's church. At St Donat's the cliffs bulge boldly 
into the sea and terminate westwards in Nash Point, one 
of the most conspicuous headlands in the Bristol Channel. 
The point is lighted by a pair of lighthouses, which also 
serve to warn the mariner off the dangerous Tusker reef 
beyond. 

The coast, which from Lavernock has hitherto kept a 
w. G. 4 



50 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



consistent course westwards, here trends north-west as far 
as the mouth of the Nedd, but it retains its cliffy character 
only until it reaches the estuary of the Ogmore, where 
the shore becomes a vast wilderness of sand. The last 
noteworthy feature which it exhibits before changing its 
aspect is Dunraven Head, which breaks off into the sea 
in a sheer wall of rock some 200 feet in height. Behind 




Dunraven Bay 



the headland lies Dunraven Castle, and close by is the 
little watering-place of Southerndown. 

Two miles beyond Southerndown the Ogmore river 
runs out into a sand-locked bay which may be regarded 
as commencing the second section of the Glamorgan 
coast, for here the scenery undergoes an abrupt and 
striking change. From a series of unbroken cliffs we 



A PEREGRINATION OF THE COAST 51 

pass to a region of unrelieved sand. The sand indeed is 
everywhere. The bay is not only floored with it, but is 
encircled by a chaos of wind-tossed dunes piled up in 
places into fantastic pyramids. Hidden behind the 
engulfing sand-hills are the village and ancient church of 
Newton Nottage. Beyond the bay the underlying rocks 
emerge for a while from their sandy envelope to form 
the promontory of Porthcawl Point, on which stands 
the popular watering-place of Porthcawl. The town 
possesses a small dock, but it has now abandoned its 
trade and given itself up to the entertainment of its 
summer visitors. The rocks are low, but line the shore 
for three miles to Sker Point, where the sand begins again, 
and forms an arid wilderness all the way to Port Talbot, 
a distance of six miles. In the midst of this waste is 
Kenfig Pool, a large sheet of fresh water around which a 
few scattered houses mark the site of the now obliterated 
town of Kenfig. A gaunt fragment of its castle may 
still be seen protruding from the sand. 

Nine miles beyond Porthcawl the Avon divides the 
ancient town of Aberavon from its flourishing suburb 
Port Talbot, which possesses some extensive docks and 
works. At Aberavon, which stands on the further side 
of the river, commences the wide sweep of Swansea Bay. 
The bay is shut in with high hills and thickly encircled 
with sands ; and at Briton Ferry the entrance to the Nedd 
river, which falls into the middle of the bay, has to be 
protected by long breakwaters. Briton Ferry possesses a 
dock, and smaller vessels can go three miles higher up the 
river to Neath. Four miles of burrows, which form a 

4—2 



52 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

fringe to an extensive morass, Crymlyn Bog, reach from 
the mouth of the Nedd to the estuary of the Tawe, where 
a dense cloud of smoke indicates the position of Swansea. 
Opening into the estuary are a number of imposing docks, 
and the valley of the Tawe has been converted into a 
vast scene of industrial activity chiefly concerned with 
copper-smelting. Beyond the Tawe the bay sweeps 
round in a graceful curve of six miles to the Mumbles 
Head, its western extremity. 

At the Mumbles the Glamorganshire coast enters 
upon its third phase, for here commence the wild and 
beautiful cliffs of Gower. The Mumbles Head, an 
elevated limestone ridge, terminates in a couple of rocky 
islets, one of which carries a lighthouse and signalling 
station. At the northern foot of the headland lies the 
village of Oystermouth, the local centre of the oyster 
fisheries, where there are a pier and a ruined castle. Its 
chief attraction is, however, the splendid view of Swansea 
Bay which it commands. The contour of the Gower 
coast is so extremely complicated that it is impossible to 
trace it in any detail. From the Mumbles Head to 
Worms Head it measures 20 miles, and for the most part 
it consists of a series of precipitous cliffs indented with a 
number of sand-strewn bays, all alike beautiful and quite 
charming in their variety. Between the Mumbles and 
the next prominent headland, Pwlldu, are Langland 
and Caswell Bays, both favourite resorts with holiday- 
makers. Beyond Pwlldu Head opens the extensive bay of 
Oxwich. Though walled at its extremities with lofty 
cliffs, which in places exhibit some interesting bone 



54 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



caverns, the centre of the bay is a sandy hollow overlooked 
by the ruins of Pennard and Penrice castles, and another 
ruined mansion clings to the w^ooded slopes of Oxwich 
Point. On the further side of this massive promontory is 
another bay, in which nestles the village of Port Eynon, 
and from Port Eynon Point a wild and impressive series 
of cliffs stretch for five miles to the Worms Head, which 




Rhossili Bay 

forms the western termination of the peninsula. This 
wall of rock is pierced in places with caverns, the most 
remarkable of which is known as the Culver Hole. The 
" Worm," which forms such a fantastic finial to the 
county, is a long and narrow ledge of limestone, projecting 
into the sea and ending abruptly in a wedge-shaped crag, 
some 200 feet high. Its resemblance to a dragon, from 
which it takes its name, is very remarkable. On the 



A PEREGRINATION OF THE COAST 55 

northern side of Worms Head are the village and bay of 
Rhossili. The bay faces west and behind it rises a chain 
of breezy downs, which form some of the highest land in 
Gower. The northern extremity of this extensive bay is 
formed by the Llangenydd Burrows and the little islet 
of Burry Holm, whereon is a ruined chapel. Overlooking 
the burrows is the camp-crowned hill of Llanmadoc, 
whence the coast turns abruptly eastward to form the 
Burry Inlet, a shallow and sand-choked estuary which 
separates the peninsula from the opposite coast of Carmar- 
thenshire. A long tongue of land, the Whiteford Burrows, 
obstructs the mouth of the inlet, and the Glamorgan 
shore henceforth subsides into a lengthy and uninteresting 
tract of salt-marshes which stretches all the way to the 
mouth of the Loughor river. Standing on the ridge of 
land which walls in the marsh are the villages of 
Llanmadoc, Cheriton, and Llanrhidian, and between the 
latter two places are the remains of Landimore and 
Weobley castles. At Penclawdd, near the Loughor end 
of the estuary, cockles are found in great numbers. 



9. Coastal Gains and Losses: Sand= 
banks and Lighthouses. 

In prehistoric days the coast of Glamorganshire must 
have been much nearer that of Somerset than at present. 
The estuary of the Severn was then but a ''silver streak " 
dividing Wales from England, and the bed of the Bristol 
Channel was an extensive tract of forest land, " There 



56 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

rolls the deep where grew the tree." Beds of peat and 
remnants of submerged forests are still to be seen off both 
the Welsh and English shores. A considerable subsidence 
took place, which let in the sea and enlarged the estuary 
of the Severn until it assumed the dimensions of the 
present Bristol Channel. The original bed of some of 
the Glamorganshire rivers is 60 feet below the surface of 
the silt at their mouths. This process of enlargement is 
still going on. Everywhere the coast is undergoing slow 
and steady modification. The encroachments of the sea 
are taking place chiefly at the expense of the Welsh shore. 
The detached masses of rock which occasionally crop up 
in the channel were once part of the mainland, and have 
become isolated from the parent shore by the action of 
the waves. The beach which fringes the cliffs both of 
the Vale of Glamorgan and the peninsula of Gower is 
floored with slabs of rock which once formed the founda- 
tions of the cliffs when they stood further out to sea. 

The alteration of the coast-line depends, of course, 
upon the general set of the currents and the character of 
the shore ; and a glance at the map will show the kind 
of alteration which we should expect along the coast of 
Glamorganshire. The general trend of the Channel 
currents under the stimulus of the prevailing south-west 
winds is towards the north-east. The peculiar and exten- 
sive projection of the Glamorganshire coast exposes it to 
the full fury of the Atlantic storms. It is evident that 
under such circumstances it will undergo a constant 
process of denudation. If land is deposited at all, it will 
be deposited in those coastal recesses which receive the 



COASTAL GAINS AND LOSSES 57 

backwash of the tide, or in those places where rivers can 
with least hindrance deposit the silt which they bring 
down from the hills. Fortunately the coast of Glamor- 
ganshire is fenced throughout the greater part of its 
length with a wall of high and fairly hard cliffs, which 
enables it to resist to a large extent the vigorous assault 
of the Atlantic breakers. The toughest rocks are those 
which line the peninsula of Gower. There the wasting 
of the land is not very considerable. The lias cliffs which 
border the Vale of Glamorgan are much more easily 
disintegrated, and from time to time they fall in great 
masses. Here the erosion is fairly rapid, but is to some 
extent impeded by the underlying limestone which shows 
itself in the isolated masses of Sully and Barry Islands. 
The sea is, however, making the greatest inroads on the 
shores of Ogmore and Swansea Bays. Almost within 
living memory the road which connected Swansea with 
the Mumbles ran along a tract of foreshore now habitually 
covered with the tide. 

On the other hand some compensation is being offered 
by the sea for this lost land in the shape of various 
deposits. The most considerable of these gains are the 
alluvial plains formed at the mouths of rivers. A great 
deal of valuable land has been created between the 
estuary of the Rhymney and Penarth Head. This has 
been made not only by the soil brought down by the 
rivers, but in still greater measure by the mud washed up 
by the sea. The fields so won from the tide have to be 
preserved from inundation by the erection of sea-walls. 
There is again another tract of low-lying land spread at 



58 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



the mouth of the Daw. Some land has been reclaimed 
behind Oxwich Bay, though considerable difficulty is 
still experienced in keeping the tide out, and probably 
both Crymlyn Bog and the Llanrhidian marsh are only 
awaiting the enterprise necessary to convert these desolate 
morasses into valuable pasture land. Far less serviceable 
than these estuarine deposits are the vast accumulations of 




Oxwich Marsh 



sand which occur at frequent intervals along the coast. 
At the mouth of the Ogmore, on the eastern side of 
Swansea Bay, in Oxwich Bay, and along the shores of 
the Burry Inlet are, as we have seen, immense quantities 
of blown sand. These sand-drifts are only the wastage 
of the rocks, which have been reduced to powder by the 
ceaseless pounding of the waves. They are deposited by 



COASTAL GAINS AND LOSSES 59 

tidal currents and, by cutting off the underlying mud 
flats from the action of the sea, cause an extension of the 
land. Their advance is, however, scarcely less destructive 
than the encroachment of the waves. At Kenfig a 
fertile land has been turned into a wilderness. The 
dunes are formed by the persistent and regular action 
of the south-westerly breezes, which are always carrying 
the sand further inland. Its forward march can only be 
arrested by the intervention of vegetation, and the dwellers 
in these sand-infested localities are under an obligation to 
plant the marram-grass {Psamma arenaria\ which has been 
found most efficacious in stopping the progress of these 
moving hills. In some places the channel currents sweep 
along rounded boulders and pebbles, which are occasionally 
thrown up by strong winds into long banks like the pebble 
ridge at Coldknap Point. 

The sand is as great a source of trouble to the sailor 
as to the landsman. Owing in a great measure to the 
numerous sandbanks, the navigation of the Bristol Channel 
is notoriously dangerous. One-seventh of the total 
wrecks which take place around the coasts of Britain 
occur within its waters ; and the Welsh shore is chiefly 
responsible for the fatalities. The fairway to the 
Channel ports lies much nearer the Welsh side than the 
English, and the prevailing storms beat down directly 
upon the Welsh coast. The chief sandbanks are the 
Cardiff Grounds, a patch of sand lying almost parallel 
with Penarth Head ; the Old i -fathom Bank, three miles 
south of Sully Island ; the Nash, Middle Nash, and West 
Nash Banks, a long ridge stretching eight miles west of 



60 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Nash Point ; the Scarweather Sands, an immense bank 
three miles west of Porthcawl ; the Outer Green Grounds 
at the entrance of Swansea Bay; the Green Grounds 
and the Mixon Sands off the Mumbles Head ; the East 
and West Helwick Banks, a long narrow ridge nearly 
nine miles long, south of Worms Head ; the Hooper Sands 
at the mouth of the Burry Inlet; and the Llanrhidian 
and Bacas Sands which choke the estuary of the Loughor 
river. In addition to these sandbanks there are one or 
two outlying reefs of rock which add to the dangers 
of the coast. The Wolves are submerged rocks lying 
between Penarth Head and the Flat Holm, the Tusker is 
a well-known and dangerous reef at the entrance of 
Ogmore Bay, and the White Oyster Ledge is a small 
shelf of rock south of the Mumbles. 

The Glamorganshire coast, however, is well lighted, 
and all the banks and obstructions are indicated by buoys. 
The chief lights are the Monkstone Beacon, the Flat 
Holm lighthouse, the Breaksea lightship, the twin light- 
houses on Nash Point, the Scarweather lightship, the 
Mumbles lighthouse, and the lighthouse on Whiteford 
Point. Of these the most conspicuous are the light- 
houses on the Flat Holm, Nash Point, and Mumbles 
Head. On the Flat Holm at the south extremity of 
the island is a white tower 99 feet high carrying an 
occulting light visible for 18 miles. The two tall Nash 
lighthouses stand near the edge of the cliff 1000 feet 
apart, and carry fixed lights which are visible for 19 
miles. The Mumbles light is mounted on the outer of 
the two islets and periodically eclipses. Its flash can be 









4., 








T3 
0) 



62 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



seen for 17 miles. In addition to the lights already 
enumerated, the harbours of Cardiff, Penarth, Barry, 
Porthcawl, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry, and Swansea have 
their own distinguishing beacons, and there are illuminated 
buoys to mark the fairway for vessels approaching the 
ports. 







;,^|:s;#|;il^^^'" 



Port Eynon Bay 



In spite of these precautions, however, maritime 
disasters are still very frequent on the shores of the 
Bristol Channel, and the protective work of the Trinity 
House has to be supplemented by the rescue work of the 
National Lifeboat Institution. There are lifeboat stations 
at Penarth, Porthcawl, the Mumbles, and Port Eynon. 



CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 63 



lo. Climate and Rainfall. 

The climate of a country is, briefly, the average 
weather which it, as a rule, experiences. This depends 
upon a variety of circumstances of which it is only 
possible to enumerate the chief. The proverbial un- 
certainty of the weather shows how multitudinous are 
the influences which affect it. If it were possible to 
ascertain them all, the weather could be predicted with 
absolute precision. The weather in some parts of the 
world is much more capricious than in others because 
the circumstances which determine it are less constant 
and regular. The climate of England is peculiarly fickle 
because the atmospheric conditions prevailing on these 
shores are in an habitual state of alteration. 

The two chief features of the climate of a country are 
the temperature and the rainfall, or the amount of sunshine 
and rain that on an average it receives ; and these are 
determined by two principal considerations, its distance 
from the equator and from the sea. The sun is the great 
source of heat, and the nearer a country is to the equator, 
the more sunshine does it receive, and the higher will be 
its temperature. The sea, on the other hand, is the 
great reservoir of moisture, and the closer a country is to 
the sea, the damper will be the atmosphere, and the 
greater, in consequence, will be the rainfall. But prox- 
imity to the sea likewise affects the temperature. Water 
is heated miore slowly than land, and does not cool so 
quickly. A country, therefore, which borders the sea 



ENGLAND & WALES 

ANNUAL RAINFALL 

Statute Miles 
o ZO 40 60 80 




GEORGE PHIUPX SOU Lt" 



{J^he figures ginje the approximate annual ratnjall in inches.) 



CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 65 

does not experience such varieties of temperature as one 
further away. In other words, its climate is more 
equable. The climate of Britain is much more equable 
than that of countries in the same latitude, for it is not 
only entirely surrounded by the sea, but owing to the 
prevalence of south-west winds in the Atlantic the warm 
waters of the southern regions reach its shores and have a 
great effect in raising the temperature. So strong is the 
influence of the north-eastward-moving mass of warm 
water that the temperature in England varies rather from 
west to east than from north to south. The ordinary 
winter of the Shetland Islands hardly differs from that of 
the Isle of Wight, whilst London is some six degrees 
colder in winter than Cornwall. 

But though latitude and seaboard are the two chief 
circumstances which determine the climate of a country, 
they are not the only factors. Amongst other agents 
which influence it are the altitude of the country, its 
configuration, its vegetation, and its soil. The higher a 
land is, the colder it is ; partly on account of the chilliness 
produced by the more rapid evaporation of its moisture 
and partly on account of its exposure. The highest 
regions are regions of perpetual snow. A mountainous 
country is, however, not only a cold country but a wet 
one, because the clouds are driven up the sides of the 
hills into the higher and colder regions of the atmosphere, 
and have a portion of their moisture condensed into rain. 
Again, the configuration of the land may modify the 
climate experienced. A range of hills often shelters the 
plains at its feet from cold winds and frosts. The slopes 

w. G. 5 



66 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

exposed to the sun not only absorb its heat but radiate it, 
and so make the surrounding districts warmer. On the 
other hand, if not so advantageously situated, hills may 
obstruct the sunlight, and throw a cold shadow over the 
valleys below. Again, hills not only modify the tem- 
perature of a locality, but they considerably influence its 
rainfall. If they stand close to the seaboard, they chill the 
moisture-laden air which passes over their summits, and the 
condensed vapour falls in rain on them and on the districts 
immediately behind them, so that owing to intervening 
mountain-barriers lands lying away from the sea are 
frequently wetter than those on the coast. Vegetation 
also produces moisture. A fruitful land has sometimes 
been made a wilderness by being stripped of its trees. 
Soil likewise affects the climate. A light porous soil makes 
a country drier and less susceptible to fog than a thick 
heavy soil. Even the industries of a locality are not 
without their influence on its climate. The smoke of a 
manufacturing district will not only obscure the sky and 
shut out the sunshine, but it impregnates the air with 
solid particles upon which moisture is readily deposited, 
and the atmosphere is, in consequence, rendered thick 
and muggy. 

A consideration of these facts will enable us both to 
determine with some degree of exactness the climatic 
conditions of Glamorganshire and to account for their 
peculiarity. 

The very extensive seaboard of our county prevents 
it from experiencing great variations of heat or cold, for 
the proximity of the sea moderates both the heat of the 



CLIMATE AND RAINFALL ^1 

summer and the cold of the winter. The climate of 
Glamorgan is not only very temperate but also remark- 
ably equable. The average temperature of England is 
48° F., that of Glamorgan is 50°. The Greenw^ich 
average is 49°. The mean temperature in the summer 
is 62°, that of the w^inter is 38°, which shows only a 
difference of 24°. The maximum temperature recorded 
in 1 91 2 was 84*1°, and the minimum i8'8°. So genial 
are the summers that grapes ripen in the open, and 
so mild are the winters that myrtles, magnolias, and 
fuchsias flourish out of doors. But so varied are the 
physical features of the county that the climate, though 
equable as a whole, displays remarkable variations in 
parts. The south-east portions of the county are slightly 
warmer than the south-west. The hilly district of the 
north is particularly cold in winter, as the elevation is so 
considerable, and, roughly, the temperature falls i° with 
every 270 feet rise in altitude. The average winter 
temperature at Cardiff is 37° but at Dowlais only 33°, 
though Dowlais is only 22 miles north of Cardiff. On 
the other hand, owing to the moderating influence of 
the sea, the hilly districts are in summer hotter than the 
coast, the thermometer often registering as much as 
85° Fahr. in the shade. Though its climate is much 
warmer than that of many other places in the British 
Isles, Glamorganshire enjoys less sunshine than other 
counties similarly situated. The smoke of its innumerable 
furnaces and its frequent sea mists make the atmosphere 
thick and murky. The sunniest districts in England get 
on an average 1800 hours of bright sunshine yearly, out 

5—2 



68 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

of a possible 4450. CardiflF in 1908 received 1669 hours 
and in 19 12 only 1353. Other parts of the county, 
especially some of the gloomy mining valleys, receive 
much less. 

Let us now^ turn to the rainfall. Owing to the 
prevalence of moisture-laden south-west winds from the 
Atlantic, the climate of the British Isles is particularly 
humid, and one of the wettest parts of Britain is Wales. 
The west and south-west districts receive the most rain, 
as the winds part with a great deal of their moisture as 
they pass eastwards. The Welsh mountains form a rain 
screen for central England. The rate at which the 
rainfall diminishes as we pass from west to east is easily 
seen from the map. The western counties of Wales 
have an average rainfall of from 40 to 60 inches and in 
the central districts of Wales it varies between 60 and 80 
inches. In some of the eastern counties of England it 
averages less than 25 inches. Glamorganshire, owing to 
its extraordinary diversity of surface, has a very variable 
rainfall. Though it is drier than many other portions of 
Wales, its climate is in general considerably wetter than 
that of England as a whole. The average rainfall of 
Glamorgan is 50 inches, that of Merionethshire, the 
wettest part of Wales, is 80 inches (though in particular 
spots it may be very much higher than this), whilst the 
general average for England only amounts to about 33 
inches. The quantity of rain received by diflPerent parts 
of the county, however, varies very considerably. The 
wettest district is the mountainous region in the north, 
and the driest is the sea coast of the Vale of Glamorgan. 



CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 69 

The centre of the humid zone is the neighbourhood of 
Craig-y-Llyn. The Rhondda valley in particular has a 
bad reputation : it catches all the storms that float over 
the mountains. The gauge at Treherbert at the top of 
the valley records an average of 77 inches. This figure 
is, however, surpassed by the returns from Glyncorrv^g on 
the south slope of Craig-y-Llyn, which yield an average 
of 83*32. On the other hand the amount of rain on the 
seaboard of the Vale of Glamorgan is very moderate. At 
Cadoxton only 32'65 inches fall, and at Fonmon Castle 
36*49 inches on an average. In the neighbourhood of 
CardiflF the figures are rather higher. It will be noticed 
that the rainfall bears a fairly constant relation to the 
altitude, the difference in height between the places giving 
the highest and lowest returns being 697 feet. A curious 
exception to this rule is, however, furnished by the returns 
from Cwm Bargoed overlooking the Rhymney valley, 
where the altitude is 1225 feet. Here the fall recorded in 
19 1 2 was 78*91 inches, and the average is given as 61 '88, 
figures which are scarcely higher than those obtained in 
other places of little more than half the altitude. But 
this is the exception which proves the rule. 

Glamorganshire, unfortunately, does not possess the 
clear skies and transparent atmosphere of less busy regions. 
The general humidity of the climate and the prevalence 
of smoke make the air as a rule hazy. Fogs are of 
frequent occurrence in the Bristol Channel, but they are 
generally of a drifting character. Ground fogs are not 
prevalent except in the low-lying neighbourhood of 
CardiflF and in the vale of Neath. The hills are, however. 



70 glamorga:n^shire 

frequently wreathed in mist, and the atmosphere of the 
mining valleys is exceedingly murky, for the altitude of 
the adjoining mountains prevents the smoke from dis- 
persing. 



II. People— Race. Language. Popular 
tion. 

We generally speak of the Ancient Britons as the 
aboriginal inhabitants of this island, and we regard the 
Welsh as the chief survivals of the stock. As a matter 
of fact Wales is no more the home of one ancient people 
than it is of one ancient language. Many races have 
reached its shores, and have contended amongst them- 
selves for the possession of its soil. Some have perished 
and some still survive ; but nearly all have left memorials 
of their sojourn amongst its vales and hills. The earliest 
traces of human occupancy are the flint implements of a 
race of rude hunters who shared with the beasts of the 
field which they pursued the scanty shelter of the cave. 
It is not, however, to these that we must look for the 
early progenitors of the Welsh people. The Welshman 
of to-day is the offspring of two distinct races of immi- 
grants who pressed westwards from different parts of the 
continent. 

The first comer was the Iberian, short, swarthy and 
long-headed, who arrived possibly from the northern 
shores of the Mediterranean. The Iberian was succeeded 
by the Celt, who came from some colder home on the 



PEOPLE— RACE, LANGUAGE, ETC. 71 

plains of northern Europe. The Celt was tall and fair, 
and with weapons of bronze and iron he dispossessed and 
enslaved the simpler and less instructed Iberian armed 
only with weapons of flint. The Celts came in two 
successive bands, the Goidels or Gaels and the Brythons, 
whose arrival was separated by a wide interval of time. 
The Goidels arrived at a very early period — perhaps 
1200 B.C. — and brought with them weapons of bronze. 
They swept over Britain and Wales, and spread even to 
the shores of Ireland. It was not until the fourth cen- 
tury B.C. that the Brythons made their appearance, and 
when they came, they came armed with implements of 
iron. Their conquest of Britain was sufficiently com- 
plete to give to its people the familiar name of Britons. 
How far they succeeded in occupying Wales is a moot 
point. Probably for a time they penetrated only into the 
central parts of the Principality, and did not overrun 
the country until after the departure of the Romans in 
the fifth century a.d. But it is not to either Goidel or 
Brython that the Welsh owe all their peculiarities. The 
Welshman of Glamorgan, at any rate, is not purely and 
entirely a Celt. All through the contest between Gael 
and Briton the Iberian survived, living side by side with 
his successive Celtic masters. To-day two types of 
people exist, the one short and dark, the other tall and 
fair, each of whom may be regarded as perpetuating the 
original characteristics of the two different races. Every- 
where in Wales these two types are to be met with, but 
nowhere is the dark skin of the Iberian more plainly 
exhibited than in the county of Glamorgan. To-day the 



72 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

dark type is the predominating element in the population, 
and it is to his Iberic blood that the native no doubt owes 
his imaginative and emotional nature. 

Glamorganshire has, however, become the home of 
still another people. Besides the Welshman, there is the 
Englishman. Iberian, Goidel, and Brython in course of 
time forgot their racial differences, and coalesced into one 
nation. They became Cymry — " fellow countrymen." 
But the Englishman has always been regarded as an alien. 
This is due in some measure to the fact that he came 
originally in the train of the Norman conqueror. The 
English district is the district which was overrun by the 
Norman nobles, whose followers settled down on the 
land which they annexed. The inhabitants of the Vale 
of Glamorgan, which corresponds with the Norman 
sphere of influence, are much less Welsh than their 
neighbours in the hills. The district round Llantwit is 
peculiarly English. The people of Gower are not only 
English in race but English in speech. Some have found 
an explanation of the foreign character of these districts 
in a tradition that Henry I planted colonies of Flemings 
both at Llantwit and in Gower. The tradition, however, 
lacks historical confirmation. If the Flemings came to 
these parts at all, they probably came in the train of the 
Conqueror's Flemish lieutenants, some of whom settled 
in Somerset and sallied forth from their strongholds on 
the banks of the Parret to seek further adventure in 
Wales. The maritime position of these localities is in 
part an explanation of their peculiarity. Since the 
Norman opened up Wales to the Englishman, there has 



PEOPLE— RACE, LANGUAGE, ETC. 73 

been a constant commerce between the Welsh and 
Enghsh shores of the channel, and there seems some 
reason to believe that Gower at any rate has been largely 
peopled from Somerset. The change in the industrial 
character of the county generally has still further leavened 
the population. The inhabitants of the sea-ports are now 
largely cosmopolitan. In the mining districts also there 
has been a considerable influx of outsiders, not only from 
England but from Scotland and Ireland. 

If there is some difficulty in tracing the pedigree of 
the Welshman, there is none in tracing the source of his 
language. The Brythonic invasion, though it did not 
exterminate the Iberian and the Goidel, nevertheless com- 
pletely eradicated their languages. The Welshman, unlike 
his kinsman in Scotland and Ireland, does not use the 
Gaelic but the Brythonic tongue. The only trace of his 
mixed ancestry in his speech is his method of arranging 
his words — a peculiarity which seems to indicate the 
lingering influence of earlier idioms. In one respect the 
Celt is debtor to the Roman. The Roman occupation 
was merely an historical interlude, but it lasted long 
enough for the Welsh tribesman not only to borrow from 
the Roman soldier certain military and domestic terms 
but to acquire the art of writing. Before the Roman 
occupation the Celt appears to have had no method of 
transcribing his language beyond the rude Ogam signs. 
When at last he learnt to write he wrote in Roman 
characters. 

The complete disappearance of Gaelic left Welsh the 
universal language of Wales. Now, however, in South 



74 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Wales, English is proving a formidable rival. Everyone 
in Glamorganshire can speak English, though for senti- 
mental reasons Welsh is still largely adhered to. It is 
computed that 35 per cent, of the population use Welsh 
as the habitual vehicle of conversation. The Welsh- 
speaking districts are chiefly in the north and west. In 
Cardiff the Welsh-speaking population scarcely numbers 
10 per cent, of the inhabitants, whereas in the neighbour- 
hood of Swansea half the people, it is said, habitually use 
Welsh. The dialect of the county, owing probably to 
the intermixture of races and the persistence of Iberic 
influence, possesses many peculiarities. It is especially 
soft in character, and its vocabulary retains many archaic 
words. English is universally employed in the peninsula 
of Gower, but though it bears a certain resemblance in 
phraseology to the West Saxon speech of Somerset, it is 
spoken with a Welsh accent and intonation. 

Though the population of Glamorganshire does not 
rival in number that of some of the large industrial 
counties in the north of England, yet nowhere has 
growth been more rapid. In a century its inhabitants 
increased more than ten-fold. In 1801 the estimated 
population was 70,879. In 1901 it was recorded as 
859,931. Now it has reached 1,121,062. In the last 
decade its people have multiplied more rapidly than those 
of any county in England and Wales outside the metro- 
politan area. Glamorganshire now contains more than 
half the total population of Wales. Compared with the 
average population of England and Wales there are 1382 
people to every square mile as against 669 in England 



PEOPLE— RACE, LANGUAGE, ETC. 75 

and 271 in Wales. In other words there are twice as 
many people to a square mile in Glamorganshire as there 
are in England, and five times as many as in Wales. 
There are now in Glamorganshire nearly two people to 
every acre of ground. Contrasting these returns with 
those of the individual counties at the extreme ends of 
the scale, the population of Glamorganshire is about 
seventeen times as dense as that of Westmorland, the 
most thinly inhabited of all the English counties, and 
twenty-eight times as dense as that of Radnorshire, which 
stands at the bottom of the list of Welsh counties. The 
population is very unevenly distributed. The three largest 
towns, Cardiff, Swansea, and Merthyr, contain together 
more than a third of the total population of the county. 
In recent years there has been a large shifting of the 
population. People have flocked from the country into 
the towns and mining districts. Both the Vale of 
Glamorgan and the peninsula of Gower have been 
depleted of their inhabitants. On the other hand many 
once rural districts have, owing to mining operations, 
become densely populated. The Rhondda valleys, for 
instance, formerly one of the most sparsely populated 
districts in the county, now have over 152,000 inhabitants 
and are, after Cardiff, the largest urban area in Wales. 



12. Agriculture. 

Though Wales is largely an agricultural district, its 
exceedingly mountainous character makes it compare 
unfavourably with England in its agricultural returns. 



n 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



In England 24^ million acres are in cultivation out of 
a total of 32 millions. Mountainous land possible for 
grazing purposes, but unsuitable for other agricultural 
uses, amounts to two million acres. In Wales the 
mountainous land reaches a much higher proportion. 
In Glamorganshire the mountain and heath land useless 




A Glamorganshire Farm 



for the purposes of the farmer covers 132,818 acres. 
Out of a total area of 518,865 acres only 261,363 acres 
— little more than half — are under cultivation. Of these, 
51,847 acres are arable land, and 209,516 are laid down 
in permanent grass, of which 74,067 acres is hay grass, 
and 125,449 pasture. Woodland accounts for 25,712 



AGRICULTURE 11 

acres. The proportion of pasture land is generally- 
tending to increase. The cereals chiefly grown are oats, 
wheat, and barley. Of these oats take 10,635 acres, 
wheat 4296 acres, and barley 5576 acres. Rye is but very 
slightly cultivated, only a few acres being grown. Of 
the other crops raised, potatoes cover 1620 acres, turnips 
6185 acres, and mangolds 1397, while of clover and other 
fodder there are 20,169 acres. Of land devoted specially 
to the production of fruit, 264 acres are employed in the 
cultivation of marketable varieties, of which apples, ac- 
counting for 231 acres, are the most important feature. 
Only small quantities of strawberries, currants, goose- 
berries, plums, and cherries are grown. Vineyards have 
been tried with fair success at Penarth and on the sunny 
slopes near Castle Coch, and experimental crops of 
tobacco have been produced in the neighbourhood of 
Cardiff. Of the total amount of land under crops 
of various kinds 14,371 acres are cultivated by the 
owners and 246,992 by tenants. 

Though the more fertile parts of Glamorganshire 
are very suitable for the production of corn, the farmer 
has found it more profitable to turn his fields into grass. 
The immense increase in the size of the towns has given 
rise to an enormous demand for milk and dairy produce, 
and the facilities which the ports afford for the importa- 
tion of cheap feeding-stuffs have led the agriculturist to 
prefer the rearing of cattle to the cultivation of wheat. 
Large numbers of cattle are therefore bred upon the 
pastures. Glamorganshire in days gone by produced a 
breed of cattle of its own, but this distinctive variety 



78 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

has now almost disappeared. There is now no uni- 
formity in the kind of cattle fed in the county. The 
herds are extremely miscellaneous, Herefords, Devons, 
and shorthorns are met with indiscriminately. The 
abundant rainfall and warm climate make the herbage 
rich and luxuriant, and the cattle reared on the 
Glamorganshire pastures compete on equal terms for the 
favour of the butcher with the best west of England 
beasts. Butter is made in large quantities and cheese 
is manufactured to some extent. At Caerphilly a soft 
white cheese is produced which was once peculiar to 
the county, but it is now manufactured under the same 
name on the other side of the Channel. The number 
of cattle in the county is given as 56,071, and the 
horses amount to 17,806. 

The mountain and moorland are used very largely for 
sheep rearing. There are now 319,607 sheep within the 
confines of the county. Those fed on the mountains are 
chiefly a small nimble-footed kind which is of little use 
to the wool-merchant, though their mutton is highly 
esteemed. On the plain the flocks are, like the cattle, 
very varied in breed. Leicesters and Downs perhaps 
predominate, but almost every variety, long and short 
wooUed, white-faced and black, may be met with. Pigs 
are reared to some small extent, chiefly by cottagers, but 
they are not bred in such quantities as formerly. They 
now amount to 17,915. 

Glamorganshire farms are as a rule of considerable 
size, but agriculture, generally speaking, is somewhat 
backward, and farmers are inclined to adhere to the 



AGRICULTURE 79 

older methods. Lime, which is a natural constituent of 
the soil, is much employed, large quantities of limestone 
being burnt, and the lime spread on the fields. 



13. Industries and Manufactures. 

The industries of Glamorgan, if not of recent intro- 
duction, are all of recent growth, and their development 
has followed closely on the opening-up of the coalfield. 
The prosperity of the county depends on its stock of 
coal. The exhaustion of the coal-supply would be 
followed at once by a complete commercial collapse. 
The rise of the county into the front rank of manufac- 
turing centres has been the work of the last hundred and 
fifty years. A century and a half ago Glamorganshire 
was known chiefly as an agricultural district. Beyond 
a little coal-mining, copper-smelting, and "hardware" 
manufacture, no other industry existed. To-day its 
volume of trade is surpassed by few counties in the 
kingdom. In spite, however, of the phenomenal amount 
of business done, its industries are of a rather restricted 
range. Apart from the coal and metal trades and their 
allied businesses, the manufactures are few, and consist 
chiefly of brick and tile making, pottery manufacture, 
chemical works, rubber works, brewing, and paper and 
flour mills. The enterprises in connection with the 
coal and metal trades are, on the contrary, most varied 
and extensive. Every branch and ramification of these 
industries is represented. Iron, copper, nickel, silver. 



80 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

and zinc smelting, the manufacture of steel rails, bolts, 
and bars, steel wire and tubes, armour-plates, chains, 
anchors, steam-engines, rolling stock, winding and hauling 
machinery, colliery plant, galvanized sheets, tin and terne 
plates, patent fuel and fire-bricks, are all carried on. 

The early history of iron smelting in the county is 
obscure. The beds of iron cinders which have been 
discovered at Ely and St Nicholas seem to show that 
the Romans were not altogether unacquainted with the 
mineral resources of Glamorgan. In the former district 
a small foundry hearth has been unearthed on the site of 
a Roman building, but there were no indications that the 
furnace had been used for producing iron except for 
domestic purposes. Of the local manufacture of iron 
in medieval days we know little. The existence of 
" bloomeries," or old smelting-hearths worked by hand- 
bellows, shows that iron must have been made to some 
extent by the inhabitants. Leland speaks of ironworks 
existing in the neighbourhood of Llantrissant in 1539. 
Furnaces are said to have been in operation at Aberdare 
in the days of Edward VI, and bars of old iron discovered 
amongst local ash-heaps seem to confirm the tradition. 
In the reign of Elizabeth two iron furnaces are recorded 
as having been set up at Radyr in the Taff valley by Sir 
W. Mathew, and a Government Order of 1602 prohibits 
one of his descendants from " casting ordnance at his 
furnace near Cardiff" lest the facilities of transport offered 
by the port might tempt him to supply the Spaniards with 
guns. In 1666 another furnace was in full swing at 
Hirwain, and in 1680 John Morgan and Roger Powell 



INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES 81 

established a smelting-hearth at Caerphilly. But if the 
industry existed, it can only have been on a small scale, 
for as late as 1740 the total output of iron from Glamor- 
ganshire was only 400 tons a year. It was not until the 
middle of the eighteenth century that the industry really 
commenced in South Wales. Its pioneers were Anthony 
Bacon and John Guest. In 1758 a Mr Lewis of the 
Van, who had already started a small furnace at Pentyrch, 
secured the services of John Guest, a Staffordshire man, 
to open new works at Dowlais. The undertaking grew 
into the famous Dowlais ironworks, which is now one of 
the leading industries in the country. In 1763 Anthony 
Bacon, who was M.P. for Aylesbury, began the Plymouth 
and Cyfarthfa ironworks, and in 1782 in conjunction 
with Samuel Homfray he transferred his furnaces to 
Penydarren. The Cyfarthfa works were subsequently 
purchased by Richard Crawshay, " the iron king," who 
so extended the undertaking that by the beginning of 
the nineteenth century these works alone were employing 
over 1000 men. It was to the Plymouth and Cyfarthfa 
works that the Government turned for cannon during the 
early stages of the American War of Independence. 

The first real impetus to the development of the 
Glamorganshire iron trade came from the discovery of 
the suitability of coal for smelting purposes. It had been 
customary to extract iron from the ore entirely by the 
agency of charcoal, which was obtained by stripping the 
local woods. It was the substitution of coal for charcoal 
which opened the new industrial era for South Wales. 
The success of the early ironmasters stimulated the 

w. G. 6 



82 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

foundation of other enterprises, and by the middle of the 
nineteenth century Glamorganshire iron was as famous 
as the products of Staffordshire. The extreme cheapness 
with which steel can now be produced has led to its 
almost universal adoption in the place of iron for manu- 
facturing purposes. Nearly all the large ironworks are 
fitted with '^converting" furnaces for the production 
of steel. The annual output of iron now amounts to 
500,000 tons, and the output of steel to about the same 
quantity. The number of iron and steel furnaces in the 
county is 20, and they employ between them 15,000 men. 
The chief centres of the iron and steel industry are Briton 
Ferry, Cardiff, Clydach, Dowlais, Gowerton, Landore, 
Melincryddan, Merthyr, Pontardawe, Port Talbot, Port 
Tennant, Swansea, and Ystalyfera. 

Copper-smelting, like the iron trade, made an early 
commencement in Glamorgan. In 1564 a London com- 
pany, which already possessed copper-works in Cornwall, 
extended their activities to the other side of the Channel, 
and erected a " meltinge-house " at Neath, where the 
industry was carried on by Dutch and German workmen. 
In 1 717 a Dr Lane established a smelting furnace at 
Landore, and that locality has now become the metro- 
polis of the trade. The amount of copper ore im- 
ported into the port of Swansea exceeds 200,000 tons 
annually, and the quantity of metal produced is over 
21,000 tons. The chief copper-smelting furnaces are 
at Briton Ferry, Cardiff", Cwmavon, Landore, Llansamlet, 
Morriston, Neath, Port Talbot, Skewen, Swansea, and 
Taibach. Glamorganshire practically monopolises the 



INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES 83 

manufacture of zinc. Swansea alone produces nineteen- 
twentieths of the total output of this metal in the United 
Kingdom. Gold, silver, nickel, and lead ores are also 
largely smelted in the same neighbourhood. Swansea 
has been called the "metallurgical capital of the world." 
Within four miles of the town there are 140 works 
engaged in smelting operations of one sort or another. 
No less than 36 different kinds of metallic ores are there 
treated, and the number of men employed in the industry 
exceeds 30,000. 

Although the tin mines of Cornwall were some of the 
best known sources of the mineral wealth of England and 
were worked from the earliest times, yet it was not until 
the seventeenth century that Englishmen acquired the art 
of tin-plate making. It was apparently introduced into 
England from the continent by Andrew Yarranton, a 
Parliamentary soldier. The industry was first taken up 
in Pontypool in Monmouthshire, and from thence soon 
spread into South Wales ; but it was not till coal began 
to be used in the manufacture of iron that it exhibited 
any considerable signs of development. In Glamorgan- 
shire it has now been carried on for more than a century. 
Unfortunately the trade is subject to violent fluctuations, 
but in good seasons it reaches enormous proportions. In 
the Swansea district alone (which is the chief seat of the 
industry) the output frequently amounts to six million 
boxes. The principal centres of manufacture are Aberavon, 
Aberdulais, Briton Ferry, Clydach, Gorseinon, Landore, 
Llansamlet, Llantrissant, Melincryddan, MelingrufFydd, 
Morriston, Neath, Pontardulais, Skewen, Taibach, and 

6-2 




c 
o 



M 



INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES 85 

Ystalyfera. The trade in galvanized sheets is nothing like 
so extensive. Swansea, which exports over 400,000 tons 
of tin, terne, and black plates, only exports a little over 
40,000 tons of galvanized sheets. 

An enormous business is now done in the county in 
the manufacture of patent fuel. A process for utilising 
small coal by grinding it up with pitch and pressing it 
into blocks was patented by a Mr Wood in the middle 
of the nineteenth century. The process has since been 
considerably improved, and huge quantities of this arti- 
ficial fuel are now shipped for consumption abroad. The 
total quantity exported from the various Glamorganshire 
ports amounts to well over a million and a quarter tons. 

The timber trade is another very important local in- 
dustry. Vast quantities of pitwood are required in the 
collieries for roof props, and there is a very large demand 
for sawn timber and boards for general purposes. All the 
larger docks are furnished with extensive timber floats, 
and saw-mills are numerous. The importation of pit- 
wood amounts to a million tons and that of ordinary 
timber to a quarter of a million tons. 

Engineering in all its varied branches — mining, 
marine, and general — is carried on extensively in the 
neighbourhoods of Cardiff, Neath, Pontypridd, Swansea, 
and Tondu. At Pontypridd there is a large chain and 
cable works, and at Cardiff" a Lloyd's Proving House. 
There is a certain amount of sail-making done at Cardiff, 
but the substitution of the steamer for the sailing-vessel 
has led to a great decline in this industry. Brattice cloth 
for use in collieries is manufactured also at Cardiff. At 



86 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Penarth and Rhoose there are large works for the pro- 
duction of Portland cement, which consists of a combina- 
tion of lime and silica. The hard nature of the calcareous 
rocks in Glamorganshire seems to prevent the general 
extension of the industry; but sufficiently suitable ma- 
terial is found for its production in the blue lias rocks of 
the Vale. Aberthaw at one time had a wide reputation 
for furnishing a hydraulic lime which naturally possessed 
the essential qualities of cement. Brick and tile making 
is carried on at Bridgend, Cardiff, Gowerton, Merthyr, 
Neath, Penarth, Pencoed, and Swansea. 

Glamorganshire once made a name for itself in the 
world of art by the manufacture of a very superior kind 
of porcelain, but the business has now died out. The 
first kilns were started at Swansea in 1750 for the 
manufacture of earthenware. After a preliminary effort 
to produce "opaque china," an attempt was made in 1814 
to manufacture real porcelain. In the same year a rival 
factory, which had been established by Billingsley at 
Nantgarw in the TafF valley, removed also to Swansea, 
but in 181 7 returned to its original home. Porcelain 
continued to be produced there until 1822. The Swansea 
kiln prolonged its operations for two years later, when it 
reverted once more to the manufacture of earthenware. 
The Glamorganshire porcelain, which is still much sought 
after by connoisseurs, is described as " possessing a trans- 
lucent body equal, if not superior, to that of the finest 
old Sevres." A coarse kind of drab and white ware is still 
manufactured at an old-established kiln at Ewenny, and a 
red and black pottery is made at Swansea. Architectural 



INDUSTRIES AND MANUFACTURES 87 

and decorative terra-cotta is produced in large quantities 
at Pencoed. 

Brewing is extensively carried on in Aberdare, Bridgend, 
Cardiff, Merthyr, Neath, Pontypridd, Sv^ansea, and 
other places. Paper mills exist at Ely, vitriol is made at 
Gorseinon, and at Cardiff there is a huge flour-mill and 
biscuit factory. 



14. Mines and Minerals. 

It seems unlikely that the Romans, who valued Britain 
chiefly for its minerals, and who made good use of the 
lead and tin mines on the opposite shores of the Bristol 
Channel, were unacquainted with the mineral resources 
of South Wales. There are the remains of some ancient 
zinc and lead mines at Merthyr Mawr which may be of 
Roman origin. It was probably the unsettled state of the 
country which prevented the Romans from developing to 
any extent the minerals of Glamorgan. There is some 
mention of iron mining in the laws of Hywel Dda, the 
great Welsh legislator of the tenth century, which shows 
that mining traditions were current in the district after the 
departure of the Romans. In medieval times Glamorgan 
was known to possess both iron and coal, but the easy 
terms on which mining rights were let by the Norman 
landowners suggest that they had no suspicion of the 
riches within their reach. The Normans themselves had 
too much fighting to do to find time for commercial 
undertakings, and mining, like agriculture, was left for 



88 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



development to the monks. The abbey of Margam 
seems to have been in quite early days concerned in the 
mining industry in Glamorgan. Early in the thirteenth 
century the monks obtained for paltry acknowledgments 
the right to search for iron, lead, and coal upon the lands 
of neighbouring landowners, and the abbey amongst 




Oakwood Pit, Maesteg 

( One of the oldest in the coicniy) 

Other property at the Dissolution is recorded as possessing 
a coal mine at Cefn Cribwr. There is also in existence 
at Swansea a fourteenth century charter by which William 
de Breose empowers one of his tenants to dig " pit-coal " 
out of his estates, and in 1547 William Herbert secured 



MINES AND MINERALS 89 

authority from Edward VI to work the iron ore obtain- 
able in the neighbourhood of Llantrissant. Little is 
known, however, of the use which either monks or 
private individuals made of these mining rights. 

Though, as already stated, ironworks appear to have 
existed in Glamorgan in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, there is little to show what methods were 
employed for obtaining the ore. Probably both iron and 
coal mining were carried on but fitfully until the middle 
of the eighteenth century. The first attempt to develop 
the mineral resources of the county in anything like a 
systematic fashion or on an adequate scale was made by 
one of the Morgans of Ruperra, who in 1748 purchased as 
a speculation the mineral rights of the manor of Senghe- 
nydd and sublet his interest in them to enterprising men 
like Lewis of the Van and Anthony Bacon. These 
facilities led to the establishment of the works at Cy- 
farthfa and Dowlais. The ironstone was already at hand. 
It occurred chiefly in the form of yellow limonite in 
pockets at irregular intervals along the belt of Mountain 
Limestone which girdles the coalfield. The ore was 
secured by tunnelling the limestone, which itself served 
as a flux in the subsequent smelting operations. It was 
only when charcoal began to get scarce and the suitability 
of coal as a substitute was discovered that any attention 
was paid to the coalfield. The coal was secured by means 
of pick and shovel wherever it cropped out at the surface. 
Whenever faults or other difficulties were met with, the 
workings were abandoned and a new seam opened else- 
where. 



90 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

The demand for coal which was originally created 
by the iron trade was further stimulated by the invention 
of the steam-engine, and the need for larger supplies 
of domestic fuel. The only thing which checked the 
more rapid development of the coal-mining industry 
was the lack of adequate means of transport. The con- 
struction of the Glamorganshire Canal in 1795 and the 
subsequent development of the railway made it possible 
to distribute the products both of the iron furnace and 
the coal mine to distant parts. In 1840 the first cargo 
of coal was shipped at Cardiff. The constantly increasing 
demand for fuel soon made more efficient methods of 
mining necessary, and in 1850 the first pit was sunk in 
the neighbourhood of Aberdare. In 1865 the Ogmore 
valley was opened to the miner, and very soon every 
valley in Glamorganshire was being energetically ex- 
ploited. In 1 910 there were 408 collieries within the 
county, and the men employed numbered 134,712. The 
total production of the whole of the South Wales coalfield 
in that year reached 48,700,000 tons. In 19 12 the amount 
brought to the surface was 50,116,264 tons, out of a 
total of 260,567,552 tons raised in the United Kingdom. 
About 260 tons of coal are raised for every person 
employed. It is estimated that, notwithstanding the 
enormous output, there still remain in the Welsh coal- 
field 28,000,000,000 tons of workable coal, which at 
the present rate of production (50 million tons) will last 
500 years. 

Whilst coal mining has so enormously increased, iron 
mining has, on the other hand, considerably declined. 



MINES AND MINERALS 



91 



Numerous seams of clay-band ironstone occur in the 
lowest beds of the Coal Measures and were once 
extensively worked for smelting purposes, but the im- 
portation of cheap foreign ores of greater purity has led 
to the disuse of the native material. Scarcely 10,000 
tons of native ore are now obtained annually, whereas 
668,482 tons of foreign ore were imported into Cardiff, 
and 161,936 tons into Swansea in 1910. 







Coal Trains on their way to the Docks 



Lead mining, though apparently begun by the 
Romans, has never prospered in Glamorganshire. Small 
veins of galena can be detected in several places, and 
attempts have been made to work them in the neighbour- 
hood of Draethen, Cowbridge, and Brocastle, but without 
success. There is a small deposit of gypsum in the 
district of Penarth. An effort was made to work it 



92 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

between Penarth and Lavernock, but owing to the 
softness of the overlying strata the venture proved un- 
remunerative. 

There are several quarries in the county. The stone 
chiefly used for building is the Pennant Grit from the 
upper and middle Coal Measures. It is worked chiefly 
at Pontypridd, Treforest, Llanbradach, Nelson, and 
Quaker's Yard. It is a fine-grained and hard calcareous 
sandstone of a blue colour, but soon changes to yellow 
owing to the oxidization of its iron compounds. The 
Triassic rocks in the neighbourhood of Bridgend once 
yielded a good even-grained sandstone known as "Qua- 
rella." The Silurian sandstones obtainable near Cardiff 
are employed for walling and rough building. 

Limestones are much used. Those from the Lias 
beds of the Vale of Glamorgan, owing to intervening 
bands of shale, are easily quarried and are fairly uniform 
in thickness, but they weather badly. The variety known 
as ''Sutton Stone" has proved more serviceable. The 
Radyr stone — a coarse limestone breccia, occurring at 
Cadoxton, Radyr, and near Porthcawl — once found 
favour with builders for ornamental purposes. The 
Carboniferous limestone is not generally a building stone 
on account of its hardness and the difficulty of dressing 
it. It was, however, employed very largely in the con- 
struction of the Barry docks, and has proved itself the 
best road-metal in the district. It is quarried at Wenvoe, 
Walnut Tree, Thornhill, Hirwain, Cowbridge, and Barry. 
The Old Red Sandstone is but little used, as it is too soft ; 
and the Millstone Grit is very sparsely employed. The 



MINES AND MINERALS 



93 



Lias limestone is quarried for lime-burning and cement- 
making at Penarth, Rhoose, Bridgend, and Pyle. 

Large quantities of fire-clay are obtained from the 
coalfield, and a number of collieries near the southern 
outcrop have brickyards connected with them to utilise 
the clay obtained in the workings. Another kind of 




Limestone Quarry, near Porthcawl 



fire-brick which is much esteemed is made by crushing 
the Millstone Grit. For ordinary brick-making the red 
Triassic clays from the neighbourhood of Roath, Penarth, 
Cogan, and Llandough are extensively used. The clays 
of the Old Red Sandstone near Llanishen, and the alluvial 
clays of the Cardiff moors, also furnish fairly satisfactory 



94 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

brickfields. The clay used in pottery-making is chiefly 
obtained from the bands found interspersed between the 
limestones of the Lias formation. 



15. Fisheries and Fishing Stations. 

Probably on account of its proximity to the Atlantic, 
whence its stock of fish is being constantly replenished, 
the Bristol Channel is a valuable and prolific fishing 
ground. So considerable is the supply that not only are 
there several Welsh fishing-fleets, but trawlers from Hull 
and Brixham find it worth their while to come into 
Welsh waters. The visits of these strangers would 
probably be even more frequent if the Channel provided 
a more varied list of marketable fish to tempt them from 
their own grounds. The chief fishing-stations within the 
county are Cardiff, Swansea, and the Mumbles. 

The methods employed in the capture of the fish vary 
according to the different species, but are usually either 
trawling, surface fishing, or dredging. Trawling, which 
accounts for two-thirds of the fish captured, goes on all 
the year round, and is employed for the capture of soles, 
hake, skate, ray, haddock, bream, ling, cod, conger eel, 
whiting, and pollack. The vessels used are steam-boats 
of about 70 tons register, manned by nine hands. Cardiff 
possesses a fleet of 17 of these trawlers, and Swansea 30. 
Neither of the ports possesses sailing boats; but from 
April to September a number of Brixham sailing trawlers, 
each worked by a crew of five hands, make Swansea their 



FISHERIES AND FISHING STATIONS 95 

headquarters. The quantity of fish landed during 191 2 at 
Cardiff was 141,007 cwts., and at Swansea 174,231 cwts., 
the value of the respective hauls being ^83,265 and 
yfi 30,982. The total quantity of fish caught off the 
coasts of England and Wales during 191 2 amounted 
to 14,612,000 cwt., representing a value of nearly 
^8,900,000, of which one-third was taken by trawlers. 

The trawling grounds extend over an area from 20 to 
50 miles west of Lundy Island, though the boats some- 
times pursue the fish as far as the coast of Ireland, the 
Bay of Biscay, and the shores of Morocco. The "trawl" 
used in catching the fish is a net attached to a heavy beam 
of from 42 to 50 feet in width. The beam is secured at 
each end to a wire rope, which is worked from a steam 
capstan, and by this means the net is dragged along 
the bottom of the sea. Each net is furnished in front 
of its mouth with a thick " foot-rope " which acts as 
a stirrer to disturb the soles and other flat fish which 
lie basking in the sand. Trawling is only feasible in 
sandy areas. 

The most valuable and plentiful of these bottom fishes 
is the sole. The Bristol Channel has been described as 
"the home of the sole." A single trawler will in good 
seasons secure a catch of from 8 to 14 cwt. in a three 
days' cruise. Its season is from December to the begin- 
ning of May. Cod also spawn freely off the Glamorgan- 
shire coast. Whiting, hake, and conger eel are abundant 
in the Bristol Channel, but lemon soles, plaice, and haddock 
are scarce, and the halibut is seldom met with. 

Surface fishing is chiefly done by means of "drift nets" 



96 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

and "seines," which are mostly handled by the crews of 
sailing boats. They are large nets weighted at the bottom, 
and buoyed upright in the water by floats. Drift fishing 
is usually pursued at night, as the darkness hides the net 
from the fish. The species most generally secured by 
the drift net are mackerel and herrings, which swim about 
in shoals. Mackerel are at times very plentiful, and a 
single boat will sometimes catch as many as 30 or 40 
thousand in a night. The total quantity of mackerel 
captured by the Glamorganshire fleet in 1909 was valued 
at ^1298. The coast of South Wales seems to be one 
of their favourite breeding grounds. The herring which, 
either fresh or dried, forms such a universal article of diet 
is also very common in the Channel. Though generally 
supposed to be an East Coast fish, it reaches its highest 
perfection in the west. It is plentiful in the winter, but 
the finest fish are secured in the summer — a circumstance 
probably due to some change in the character of its food. 
The sprat also haunts the Channel, attracted possibly by 
the abundance of young shrimps. They appear chiefly 
from October to December, and are invariably pursued 
by numbers of whiting, which feed on them freely. 

The lamprey, from a surfeit of which Henry I is said 
to have died, is largely caught in the higher reaches of 
the Channel. They make their way up the freshwater 
streams for the purpose of spawning. 

Another method of capturing surface fishes is by 
"whifl&ng," which consists in dragging an unweighted 
net after a row-boat ; but the method is only effective in 
the case of fish, like the pollack, which occasionally 



FISHERIES AND FISHING STATIONS 97 

frequent the very top of the water. "Stop and stake" 
fishing is occasionally resorted to at the Mumbles and 
elsewhere where a long stretch of fore-shore is exposed 
by the receding tide. Nets are suspended from poles 
placed at intervals along the beach, and the fisherman 
secures whatever the tide happens to leave behind. This 
haphazard process is looked upon with great disfavour by 
the trawler, who believes that it destroys vast numbers 
of immature fish which frequent the bays and creeks at 
spawning time. Hook and line fishing is freely indulged 
in, chiefly for the sake of the sport which it aflFords. Cod, 
halibut, pollack, and mackerel are easily caught in this 
way. 

The Mumbles is the chief station for oyster fishing, 
and the fisher-folk there devote themselves almost exclu- 
sively to that business. The Mumbles dredging-fleet 
consists of about 20 sailing smacks, carrying three hands 
apiece. The amount of other fishing done by these 
vessels is small. Out of the £ij6o worth offish landed 
here in 1909 only ^26 worth was put down as "wet" 
fish. The boats go out to scour the deeper waters of 
Swansea Bay by means of dredges. The oysters are 
scooped up and then placed on beds close to shore to 
mature and await the demands of the market. 

Of the fish which divide their time between the sea 
and the rivers the most valuable is the salmon. The 
total value of the British salmon fisheries is about 
^800,000. The salmon is really a salt-water fish which 
goes up the rivers and estuaries to spawn. The im- 
purities with which the Glamorganshire rivers are 

w. G. 7 



98 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

impregnated have now practically closed them to the 
ascent of the salmon and sewin. 

The eel, unlike the salmon, is naturally a freshwater 
fish, but leaves the rivers and seeks the sea at spawning 
time. Immense numbers of young eels, or elvers as they 
are called, ascend the tidal rivers and are netted as they 
go up, whilst the mature fish are caught in the estuaries 
as they go down. 



i6. Shipping and Trade. Chief Ports. 

Though there are six large shipping centres in 
Glamorganshire — Cardiff, Penarth, Barry, Port Talbot, 
Briton Ferry, and Swansea — there are technically only 
three ports — Cardiff, Port Talbot, and Swansea. A "port" 
in strictness is a Customs port, and its limits are defined 
by the Treasury for convenience in collecting revenue. 
Though quite distinct ports in the ordinary sense of the 
word, Penarth and Barry are for statistical purposes 
grouped together with Cardiff, whilst Briton Ferry is 
grouped with Port Talbot. Before 1846 there was only 
one officially recognised port in South Wales, the limits 
of which extended from Chepstow to Llanelly. It seems 
to have been called the port of Cardiff or the port of 
Swansea, according to the relative importance of the 
cwo places at the time. All the other harbours on the 
Welsh side of the Channel were "sub-ports" or "creeks." 

Notwithstanding the fact that the rise of the Glamor- 
ganshire ports was one of the outstanding features of 



SHIPPING AND TRADE 99 

the commercial history of the nineteenth century, both 
Cardiff and Swansea have behind them a very venerable, 
if a not too respectable, record as sea-faring places. As 
early as 1326 Cardiff was created for the time being a 
"Market of the Staple," and during the next century it 
continued to be a place of both export and import. In 
the sixteenth century, however, it appears to have become 
a mere resort of pirates. The ill repute of Cardiff possibly 
accounted for the rise of Swansea, for in the reign of 
Elizabeth the port of Swansea contributed several ships 
to fight the Spanish Armada. There is, however, a 
suspicion that the vessels fitted out at Swansea instead 
of scouring the Spanish main, may have helped to swell 
the fleet of illicit traders which ransacked the Bristol 
Channel from the port of Cardiff. Swansea, in any case, 
seems to have kept the lead which it had obtained, for in 
the eighteenth century, when Cardiff had sunk to the 
position of a "creek" of Bristol, its rival was doing a 
very considerable trade. In 1768 the vessels cleared 
from the port numbered 694, and the registered tonnage 
was recorded as 30,631. The prospects of Cardiff, on 
the other hand, were regarded as hopeless, especially in 
that particular in which it has now become so famous. 
In 1775 the official Customs report stated that ''no coals 
are exported from Cardiff nor ever can be, its distance 
from the water rendering it too expensive for any such 
sale." Nothing perhaps shows more strikingly the mag- 
nitude of the industrial revolution brought about by the 
development of the Glamorganshire coalfield than a com- 
parison between the position of Cardiff then and now. 

7—2 



100 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



In little more than a century Cardiff has become the 
largest coal-exporting port in the world, the first port in 
the United Kingdom for the volume of its foreign 
exports, and the third in point of tonnage cleared. 
Swansea can exhibit almost equal signs of progress, and 
Barry and Port Talbot have been entirely created. 
The business done at the Glamorganshire docks is 




Cardiff Docks 



almost entirely in the form of exports, of which coal 
forms the bulk. Except for timber, grain, potatoes, and 
metallic ores the import trade is comparatively insig- 
nificant, and does not equal even in the aggregate that 
done at Bristol. Foreign cattle, however, are brought in 
large numbers to Cardiff", which has special accommodation 
for their slaughter and storage. 

The foundation of Cardiff''s prosperity was laid by 



SHIPPING AND TRADE 101 

the second Marquis of Bute, who in 1839 spent a fortune 
^f ;f 350>000 in the construction of a dock. Since that 
time dock has followed dock, and the record of the port 
has been one of uninterrupted and phenomenal growth. 
Cardiff now possesses iive docks, besides timber floats and 
graving-docks. The total area covered by the wet docks 
is 163 acres. 

The imports consist of iron ore, pig iron, timber, 
pit wood, grain, wood-pulp, flour, potatoes, and general 
merchandise. In 19 12 thej amounted in the aggregate 
to 2,096,392 tons. The exports consist of coal, coke, 
patent fuel, steel rails, pig iron, bricks, and general 
merchandise. In 191 2 they reached the large total ot 
10,405,579 tons. The figures for the Customs port 
(including Penarth and Barry) in 1909 place Cardiff 
first of all the ports in the kingdom as regards foreign 
tonnage. Its record for 1912 was 8,170,231 tons as 
against 6,928,920 tons cleared from London. In the 
export of coal Cardiff easily takes the premier position 
in the world, its record for 191 2 being 20,084,021 tons 
compared with 16,232,462 tons exported from the Tyne 
ports. Of this huge total the local port of Cardiff con- 
tributed not quite half. 

The Penarth docks comprise a dock and a basin, 
constructed respectively in 1865 and 1881 j they occupy 
together an area of 26 acres. Additional facilities for 
business are afforded by the tidal harbour alongside the 
docks, which has a total frontage of 15,000 feet and an 
area of 55 acres. The exports, which are similar to those 
of Cardiff, amounted in 1912 to 4,190,786 tons, of which 



102 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



over four millions were coal and coke. The imports, 
however, were only 110,080 tons. 

The rise of Barry has been remarkable. In a quarter 
of a century it has grown from a rural hamlet to one of 
the largest coal ports in the Channel. The quantity of 
coal and coke exported in 191 2 actually exceeded that 
shipped at Cardiff, the figures being 9,732,606 tons as 




Barry Docks 

against 9,601,648. The number of vessels cleared in 
1912 was 3140, with an aggregate tonnage of 4,358,653 
tons. Barry is at present little more than a coal port, 
but it has, perhaps, almost a finer prospect than any 
other port in the county. It owes its existence to a 
demand for greater shipping facilities than Cardiff 
could at the moment supply. The docks are three in 



SHIPPING AND TRADE 103 

number, and cover a total area of 114 acres. There 
are three large graving-docks and some timber ponds 
of 41 acres. Barry possesses one advantage of which 
none of the rival Channel ports can boast, for the docks 
can be entered at all states of the tide, and owing to the 
absence of rocks and shoals they can be approached with 
ease. The exports in 191 2 were 10,371,775 tons. 

Porthcawl possesses a small dock of seven acres, and 
once did a brisk trade in coal, but the dock has now been 
dismantled and practically abandoned. 

The decline of Porthcawl has been more than coun- 
terbalanced by the rise of its neighbour Port Talbot at the 
mouth of the Avon, which is now an exceedingly busy 
place. It has two large docks covering together 92 acres, 
and a large graving-dock. The harbour has a fine entrance, 
but owing to the sandy nature of the locality it has to be 
kept free by constant dredging. Port Talbot thrives largely 
on its exportation of coal, but it has likewise secured a con- 
siderable import trade. 

Briton Ferry possesses a small dock of 14 acres, which 
is kept busily employed, and though this to a large extent 
provides a harbour for Neath, yet vessels of less than 400 
tons can proceed two miles up the river to Neath itself, 
where they lie alongside the quays. 

Swansea, though now outstripped by its ancient rival 
Cardiff, is yet a port of very considerable importance and 
magnitude. In some ways it is the most interesting port 
in Glamorganshire, for its trade is far more varied than 
that of any of the others. Though it exports a very 
large quantity of coal, coke, and patent fuel, yet it is by 



104 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



no means exclusively a coal port. One very important 
feature of its trade is the importation of the various 
metallic ores required hy the different smelting works in 
the neighbourhood. Amongst the exports tin plates figure 
largely. In 191 2 the imports amounted to 1,021,583 tons, 
and the exports to 5,282,590 tons, of w^hich 3,898,135 
v^ere coal and coke. The number of vessels cleared from 
the port in 19 12 w^as 5638, w^itb a total tonnage of 





King's Dock, Swansea 

3,028,383 tons. The port possesses four docks covering 
a total area of 133 acres. The oldest dock w^as constructed 
in 1852 by damming the river Tawe, which has now to 
find its way to the sea by a new cut. The latest dock, 
the King's Dock — a splendid sheet of water — was opened 
in 1909. It can accommodate the largest vessel afloat and 
is entered by a fine deep-sea lock 875 feet in length. 
There are large floats and graving-docks. 



HISTORY OF GLAMORGAI^SHIRE 105 



17. History of Qlamorganshire. 

There is no recorded history of Glamorgan before 
the coming of the Romans. Together with the present 
counties of Brecon and Monmouth it was at the com- 
mencement of the Roman occupation in the possession of 
the Silures, a people of mixed Iberic and Goidelic race, 
who were eventually reduced by Sextus Julius Frontinus. 
He is reputed to have achieved the pacification of the 
country by the construction of an elaborate system of 
military works. In any case his operations were com- 
pletely successful, and by a.d. 78 he had obtained a 
secure hold over South Wales, and it only remained for 
his successor, Agricola, to complete the subjugation of 
the North. 

We are again without knowledge of the life of the 
people under the rule of their Roman masters. The 
absence of history is some evidence of the success of the 
Roman administration. Probably Wales was regarded as 
a disturbed area which required watching. The Roman 
legions were kept massed on the frontiers to overawe 
the unruly tribesmen. The headquarters of the troops 
were at Caerleon, and subsidiary camps were established 
at Cardiff and Gelligaer. The fact that the natives 
retained their own language shows that national feeling 
was by no means extinct, though doubtless customs were 
to some extent modified by contact with the Romans. 

After the departure of the Romans at the beginning 
of the fifth century the most important event for South 



106 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Wales was the Brythonic invasion from the north. 
Until the fifth century the Brythons do not appear to 
have advanced further south than the territory of the 
Ordovices in Central Wales. They allov^ed the Goidels 
to remain in undisturbed possession of the south. On the 
v^ithdrawal of the Romans, however, the Brythons overran 
Ceredigion and gradually pushed their way between the 
Tawe and the Towy, but it was not until the sixth and 
seventh centuries that they appear to have overflowed 
into Dyfed and Morganwg. In the end so complete 
was their conquest that all trace of the earlier Goidel 
supremacy disappeared and with it the language. 

The Brythons, however, were not long left in peaceful 
possession of their new conquests. In the sixth century 
another foe — the Saxon — had appeared on the eastern 
shores of Britain. By the middle of the seventh century 
they had reached the frontiers of Wales and it was probably 
the pressure of this fresh invasion that gave the Welsh 
whatever solidarity as a nation they have since possessed. 
Iberian, Goidel, and Brython all became "Cymry," or 
fellow-countrymen. We once more lack reliable infor- 
mation as to what actually took place. The early history 
of Glamorgan is especially obscure. It was however 
from Morgan Mwynfawr in the eighth century that this 
part of the realm subsequently acquired its permanent 
appellation of Morganwg. The Saxons seem to have 
made but little advance into South Wales, though the 
native princes were no doubt constantly employed in 
repelling their attacks. In 720, for instance, Ethelbald 
of Mercia is said to have descended on Gwent and 



HISTORY OF GLAMORGANSHIRE 107 

Morganwg and to have pillaged the district, but in spite 
of these raids, Offa's Dyke on the English side of the 
Wye remained the permanent line of demarcation 
between the Welsh and their invaders. In the ninth 
century the incursions of the Saxons w^ere varied by the 
ravages of the Danes. In 877 the "black pagans" are 
reputed to have laid v^aste long stretches of land on the 
fertile shores of Morganw^g, and in 896 to have come 
again and devastated Gwent and Gwynllwg. The Norse 
names of some of the localities on the coast probably 
mark the temporary sojourning places of the sea-rovers. 

The Scandinavian peril put an end for a time to 
English and Welsh antagonism, and with a view to 
protecting their territories from these Danish onslaughts 
the South Wales princes put themselves under the pro- 
tection of Alfred the Great, v/hose victory over the 
common foe in 878 made them look to him as their 
champion in the hour of distress. These good relations 
were maintained with the English during the reign of 
Edward the Elder, who gave proof of his friendliness to 
the Welsh by materially helping them during a vigorous 
Danish raid on the coast of Morganwg in 915. In spite 
of these vicissitudes Morganwg remained under the rule 
of its own princes, the descendants of Hywel ap Rhys, 
till the eleventh century. In 1043 ^ Gwentian prince, 
in the person of Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, came to the 
throne and extended his power over the neighbouring 
kingdom of Deheubarth. His dynasty, however, was 
short lived. The last native prince was lestyn ap Gwr- 
gant, who seized the realm on the fall of Gruffydd's son 



108 GLAMORGAKSHIRE 

Caradoc. It was at the hands of lestyn that Morgan wg 
lost its independence. lestyn's downfall was occasioned 
by the arrival of the Normans. The real history of the 
Norman conquest of Glamorgan is strangely obscure. 
It is difficult to unravel the facts from the fiction with 
which they are interwoven. The story is told with 
much circumstantiality by the Welsh chroniclers, but 
their narratives are quite at variance with the little that 
is really known. 

Some sort of an agreement seems to have been arrived 
at between William the Conqueror and Rhys ap Tewdwr, 
the ruler of Deheubarth, by which the Welsh prince 
secured undisturbed possession of his dominions in return 
for a fixed tribute ; but the Conqueror's death put an 
end to the arrangement. The hand of Rufus was not 
strong enough to hold back any longer the turbulent 
Norman barons, and Rhys fell in battle in a vain attempt 
to prevent the Normans from entering Breconshire. 
In 1093 Fitzhamon, a kinsman of Rufus, who already 
possessed the lordship of Gloucester, pushed westwards ; 
and in an incredibly short time the whole of the district 
between the Usk and the Avon was in his hands. In his 
wake came a swarm of Norman adventurers who carried 
their standards across Gower into Carmarthenshire. By 
1094 a chain of fortresses extended from Newport to 
Pembroke, and five years later Henry Beaumont, Earl of 
Warwick, added to the Norman dominions the peninsula 
of Gower. Not only were the lowlands of Glamorgan 
in the possession of Fitzhamon and his followers, but the 
mountainous district of the north was at least nominally 



HISTORY OF GLAMORGANSHIRE 109 

subject to his authority. What the Norman could not 
conquer he was content to rule, and the Welsh were 
allowed to retain their hold upon Senghenydd — the 
district of Caerphilly — on the acknowledgment of Fitz- 
hamon's jurisdiction. The lordship of Glamorgan be- 
came thus practically coterminous with the old kingdom 
of Morganwg. Richard de Grenville secured an inde- 
pendent sphere on the banks of the Nedd, and the land 
between the Nedd and the Avon, perhaps on account of 
its mountainous character, was allotted to a Welsh chief- 
tain, Caradoc ap lestyn. 

The subsequent history of Glamorgan is a record of 
the efforts of the Normans to retain possession of the 
territory they had won. Fitzhamon died in 1107 and 
was succeeded by Robert of Caen, the natural son of 
Henry I, who had married Fitzhamon's daughter. He 
died in 1147, ^^^ ^^^ succeeded by his son Earl 
William. Henry II twice traversed Glamorgan with a 
view to advertising his sovereignty, but his visits did 
little to sober the restlessness of the Welsh. The death 
of Earl William in 11 83 was followed by a local rising 
under the leadership of Caradoc, the Welsh lord of 
Avon, in the course of which Cardiff and Kenfig were 
burnt and the security of Neath threatened. The close 
connection which already existed between the lordship 
of Glamorgan and the English crown was for a while 
renewed by the succession of Prince John to the Welsh 
estates of Earl William, whose heiress he married ; but 
on John's contracting a second marriage the lordship 
passed to Richard de Clare, the husband of another 



1 10 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

daughter. For more than a century Glamorgan remained 
in the hands of this powerful house, and its history is 
bound up with the story of their fortunes. 

In the thirteenth century occurred the elder Llewelyn's 
struggle to secure Welsh independence, but though the 
prince ravaged Gower in the interest of his son-in-law, 
John de Breose, and kept the country generally in a state 
of unrest, no event of any importance took place on 
Glamorgan soil. Under the leadership of the younger 
Llewelyn, the English possessions in Glamorgan were 
threatened. In 1257 ^^^ Welsh prince burst into the 
county and destroyed the castle of Llangynwyd, and in 
1 27 1 demolished the castle which Gilbert the Red had 
begun at Caerphilly. But though Llewelyn was allowed 
to retain for a while his hold upon the northern half of 
Meisgyn, the final hopes of Welsh liberty were extin- 
guished when Edward I crushed his power and pushed 
his victorious arms to Carnarvon. The conquest of the 
rest of Wales in nowise altered the political status of 
Glamorgan. It still remained for all practical purposes 
the personal possession of the de Clares, though subject 
nominally to the supremacy of the crown. On the 
death of the last de Clare at Bannockburn the lordship 
again changed hands. By a matrimonial alliance the 
inheritance was secured by the Despensers. Once more 
there was trouble on the Welsh border. In 1315 the 
rapacious Hugh le Despenser annexed the district of 
Senghenydd, which had hitherto been regarded as a 
semi-independent Welsh lordship. Llewelyn Bren, the 
aggrieved chieftain, appealed for justice to the English 



HISTORY OF GLAMORGANSHIRE 111 

crown. Failing to obtain redress he collected a con- 
siderable army and laid waste the land of Glamorgan. 
So threatening became the situation that the Earl of 
Hereford was deputed to put down the rebellion. Llewelyn, 
realising the hopeless nature of the struggle, retired to the 
mountains and after a short resistance capitulated. He 
was pardoned and liberated, but falling subsequently into 
the hands of Sir W. Fleming, Despenser's lieutenant, 
he was dragged through the streets of Cardiff, hanged 
and quartered. For this act of lawlessness Fleming was 
himself afterwards gibbeted — a circumstance which shows 
that the Crown sometimes made its authority felt within 
the limits of the lordship. The exactions of Despenser 
soon raised against him a more formidable foe than 
Llewelyn Bren. The Earl seized Caerphilly, which was 
claimed by Roger Mortimer, and some further attempts 
to enrich himself at the expense of other nobles led to the 
formation of a powerful coalition of Marcher lords who 
were bent upon his destruction. This private feud set 
the whole kingdom in a blaze. Edward IPs refusal to 
get rid of his favourite caused the outbreak of hostilities. 
The queen, who had made common cause with the dis- 
contented nobles, collected an army and pursued the king 
to Bristol, where the elder Despenser fell into her hands. 
The king with the younger Despenser took to flight and 
made an attempt to reach Lundy Island. He was, how- 
ever, driven on to the coast of Glamorgan, and after 
shutting himself up for a time in the castle of Caerphilly, 
eventually sought an asylum in the abbey of Neath. 
Again he made a futile effort to escape, but with 



HISTORY OF GLAMORGANSHIRE 113 

Despenser fell into the hands of his enemies at Llan- 
trissant. Despenser was at once hanged and the lordship 
of Glamorgan was conferred on Mortimer. 

The next political upheaval which convulsed the 
county was the insurrection of Owain Glyndwr. Owain 
had no claims to sovereignty, though he sprang from 
royal blood, but he was not without political ideals, and 
he possessed a contagious enthusiasm which won all 
hearts. His almost invariable good fortune and personal 
adroitness obtained for him amongst the imaginative 
Welshmen the reputation of a necromancer. The open- 
ing of his career was like that of Llewelyn Bren. He 
flew to arms by way of reprisal for some personal injury, 
and the success which attended his earlier movements 
kindled in him the ambition to become a national deliverer. 
At one time he seemed likely to achieve his desire. A 
campaign of plunder in South Wales and a victory over 
Lord Grey at Pilleth in 1402 awoke once more the 
dream of Welsh independence, and Glyndwr became the 
idol of his countrymen. He followed up his victory by 
ravaging Gwent and Glamorgan. He burnt the town of 
Cardiff and destroyed the Bishop's palace at LlandafF. 
The next year the revolt of the Percys, who had allied 
themselves with their old antagonist, seemed to put 
success almost within his grasp ; but the defeat of the 
younger Percy at Shrewsbury dashed his hopes. The 
disaster did not, however, cause Glyndwr to relax his 
hold upon South Wales. All the castles from Newport 
to Pembroke were in distress, and the King made a futile 
expedition as far as Carmarthen to relieve them. In 

w. G. 8 



114 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

1404, according to local testimony, Glyndwr was again 
in Glamorgan, and after destroying the castles of Penlline, 
Llandough, Llanblethian, Flemingston, Talyfan, Mala- 
fant, and Penmark, he gained a sanguinary but indecisive 
victory over his opponents at Stalling Down near Cow- 
bridge. This proved his last substantial success. In 1405 
the Welsh chieftain's star began to wane. Prince Henry 
defeated his army in both Gwent and Brycheiniog. His 
exploits had been brilliant rather than fruitful, and these 
reverses, coupled with his previous failure to make any 
real headway, destroyed his prestige. The politic offer of 
liberal terms to deserters caused his army gradually to 
melt away, and though for some years afterwards he 
continued to give trouble, his cause was hopelessly ruined. 
After carrying on a desultory and fitful guerrilla warfare 
amongst the mountains until 141 3, he eventually came 
to a nameless grave. 

On the accession of Henry VII the Welsh in a sense 
came to their own again. Henry was on his father's 
side a Welshman, and one of the first things he did was 
to confer the lordship of Glamorgan, of which Richard III 
liad been the last holder, upon his uncle Jasper Tudor. 
Jasper's rule proved popular, and did something to prepare 
the way for the final incorporation of Wales with the 
English crown. In the reign of Henry VIII a change 
in administration was effected. The county of Gla- 
morgan formally became a shire, and its boundaries 
were readjusted. The district of Gwynllwg was given 
to Monmouthshire and the peninsula of Gower was 
added to Glamorganshire. The gain to the county was 



HISTORY OF GLAMORGANSHIRE 115 

considerable. The shire became entitled to send repre- 
sentatives to the English Parliament, and all lawsuits 
came under the direct cognisance of the English courts. 

In 1539 the Glamorganshire monasteries, which had 
already experienced the heavy hand of Glyndwr, were 
suppressed, and with them fell the friaries, which, on 
account of their popular sympathies, Glyndwr had spared. 
In the days of Elizabeth, Cardiff got into bad repute. 
Owing to the expansion of local commerce the Bristol 
Channel became infested with pirates, who preyed on 
the sea-going vessels. Their depredations were con- 
nived at by the people of Cardiff, who found in the 
disorganisation of trade an excellent opportunity for 
cheating the revenue. The town became notorious as 
the resort of desperados, and the town authorities were 
not without reason suspected of encouraging their illicit 
practices. Sir T. Button was commissioned to put an 
end to this illegal traffic, but the smuggling went on to 
the end of the century, when Edmund Mathews was 
prosecuted for clandestinely supplying the Spaniards with 
cannon. 

In the Stuart period the county again became involved 
in political turmoil. As a whole it was strongly royalist, 
and it loyally responded to the king's demand for ship- 
money, probably under the mistaken impression that the 
ships were to be used for the protection of the maritime 
trade. The enthusiasm, however, gradually gave place 
to indifference, which soon developed into sullen oppo- 
sition. On the outbreak of hostilities the popular resent- 
ment against these frequent imposts began to display 

8—2 



1 16 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

itself, and an additional cause of offence was given when, 
after a disastrous skirmish near Tewkesbury, in which 
the Glamorganshire levies had suffered severely, the 
Marquis of Hertford was replaced as commander of the 
South Wales forces by Lord Herbert, a papist. The 
royal cause was rendered still more unpopular by the 
exactions of Colonel Gerard, who had been despatched 
by Prince Rupert to clear Glamorganshire of the Parlia- 
mentary forces. After the decisive battle of Naseby the 
King became a fugitive and sought a temporary asylum 
at Raglan. From thence he journeyed to Cardiff in the 
hope of raising a fresh force in Glamorgan. But Charles 
was soon made aware how completely he had alienated 
public sympathy. A formal meeting was arranged be- 
tween the King and the people at St Fagan's, but the 
demeanour of the crowd was so threatening that Charles 
withdrew in fear from the conference. After some 
further negotiations in which the King undertook to 
grant all the popular demands, a half-hearted promise of 
support was given. But it was not kept, and the royal 
fugitive had to leave without the army which he came to 
seek. After the jfinal collapse of the King's cause, a futile 
attempt was made by the royalists in 1648 to take ad- 
vantage of the dissensions between the Independents and 
Presbyterians and to effect a fresh rising. Siege was laid 
to Cardiff Castle, but the investing force was easily dis- 
persed at the approach of the Parliamentary army. In 
the following year, however, a sudden revival of royalist 
hopes was brought about in an unexpected way. Major- 
General Laugharne, the commander of the Parliamentary 



HISTORY OF GLAMORGANSHIRE 117 

forces in South Wales, disappointed, it is said, at the 
inadequate reward of his services, forsook his party. He 
carried over w^ith him not only his officers but his army. 
Cromv^^ell himself hastened to Wales to crush the dis- 
affection. The rebellion was over, however, before he 
arrived. Laugharne advanced from Pembroke into Gla- 
morgan, and encountering Colonel Horton, who had been 
sent forward by Fairfax to intercept him, at St Fagan's, at 
once attacked him. The combat was most sanguinary, 
and ended in the complete defeat of Laugharne and the 
practical annihilation of his army. The battle of St 
Fagan's was the last event of national importance in the 
annals of Glamorgan. The subsequent story of the 
shire is the history of its rapid commercial development, 
and of its religious revival through the efforts of the early 
Methodists. The only incidents which have since oc- 
curred to break the peace of the county were industrial 
riots in the Merthyr district in 1802 and 181 6 consequent 
upon the lowness of wages. 



18. Antiquities. 

We have no written record of the history of our land 
antecedent to the Roman invasion in B.C. 55, but we 
know that Man inhabited it for ages before this date. 
The art of writing being then unknown, the people of 
those days could leave us no account of their lives and 
occupations, and hence we term these times the Prehistoric 
period. But other things besides books can tell a story, 
and there has survived from their time a vast quantity of 



118 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

objects (which are daily being revealed by the plough 
of the farmer or the spade of the antiquary), such as 
the weapons and domestic implements they used, the huts 
and tombs and monuments they built, and the bones of 
the animals they lived on, which enable us to get a fairly 
accurate idea of the life of those days. 

So infinitely remote are the times in which the earliest 
forerunners of our race flourished, that scientists have not 
ventured to date either their advent or how long each 
division in which they have arranged them lasted. It must 
therefore be understood that these divisions or Ages — of 
which we are now going to speak — have been adopted for 
convenience sake rather than with any aim at accuracy. 

The periods have been named from the material of 
which the weapons and implements were at that time 
fashioned — the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age ; the 
Neolithic or Later Stone Age ; the Bronze Age ; and 
the Iron Age. But just as we find stone axes in use at 
the present day among savage tribes in remote islands, so 
it must be remembered that weapons of one material 
were often in use in the next Age, or possibly even in a 
later one ; that the Ages, in short, overlapped. 

Let us now examine these periods more closely. 
First, the Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age. Man was now 
in his most primitive condition. He probably did not 
till the land or cultivate any kind of plant or keep any 
domestic animals. He lived on wild plants and roots and 
such wild animals as he could kill, the reindeer being then 
abundant in this country. He was largely a cave-dweller 
and probably used skins exclusively for clothing. He 



ANTIQUITIES 119 

erected no monuments to his dead and built no huts. He 
could, however, shape flint implements with very great 
dexterity, though he had as yet not learnt either to grind 
or to polish them. There is still some difference of opinion 
among authorities, but most agree that, though this may 
not have been the case in other countries, there was in 
our own land a vast gap of time between the people of 
this and the succeeding period. Palaeolithic man, who 
inhabited either scantily or not at all the parts north of 
England and made his chief home in the more southern 
districts, disappeared altogether from the country, which 
was later re-peopled by Neolithic man. 

Neolithic man was in every way in a much more 
advanced state of civilisation than his precursor. He 
tilled the land, bred stock, wove garments, built huts, 
made rude pottery, and erected remarkable monuments. 
He had, nevertheless, not yet discovered the use of the 
metals, and his implements and weapons were still made 
of stone or bone, though the former were often beautifully 
shaped and polished. 

Between the Later Stone Age and the Bronze Age 
there was no gap, the one merging imperceptibly into the 
other. The discovery of the method of smelting the ores 
of copper and tin, and of mixing them, was doubtless a 
slow affair, and the bronze weapons must have been ages 
in supplanting those of stone, for lack of intercommuni- 
cation at that time presented enormous dif^culties to the 
spread of knowledge. Bronze Age man, in addition to 
fashioning beautiful weapons and implements, made good 
pottery, and buried his dead in circular barrows. 



120 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

In due course of time man learnt how to smelt the 
ores of iron, and the Age of Bronze passed slowly into 
the Iron Age, which brings us into the period of written 
history, for the Romans found the inhabitants of Britain 
using implements of iron. 

We may now pause for a moment to consider who 
these people were who inhabited our land in these far-off 
ages. Of Palaeolithic man we can say nothing. His 
successors, the people of the Later Stone Age, are believed 
to have been largely of Iberian stock ; people, that is, from 
south-western Europe, who brought with them their 
knowledge of such primitive arts and crafts as were then 
discovered. How long they remained in undisturbed 
possession of our land we do not know, but they were 
later conquered or driven westward by a very different 
race of Celtic origin — the Goidels or Gaels, a tall, light- 
haired people, workers in bronze, whose descendants 
and language are to be found to-day in many parts of 
Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. Another Celtic 
people poured into the country about the fourth century 
B.C. — the Brythons or Britons, who in turn dispossessed 
the Gael, at all events so far as England and Wales are 
concerned. The Brythons were the first users of iron in 
our country. 

The Romans, who first reached our shores in B.C. 55) 
held the land till about a.d. 410 ; but in spite of the 
length of their domination they do not seem to have left 
much mark on the people. After their departure, treading 
close on their heels, came the Saxons, Jutes, and Angles. 
But with these and with the incursions of the Danes and 



ANTIQUITIES 



121 



Irish we have left the uncertain region of the Prehistoric 
Age for the surer ground of History. 

The earhest stone implements in Wales were found 
on the floors of the caves of Gower. Beneath layers of 
stalagmite were discovered a number of flint flakes and 
a fine flint arrow-head. The rough unpolished nature 
of the weapon has caused it to be assigned to the Palaeo- 




Neolithic Implements found at Cowbridge 

lithic or early Stone Age, when men were accustomed to 
chip instead of polishing their tools. Palaeolithic remains 
are, however, extremely scanty in South Wales. Of the 
Neolithic or later Stone Age relics are more numerous. 
A fine polished axe-head, now in the British Museum, 
was found at Cardiff, and another good specimen pierced 
with a hole for a handle was turned up at Llanmadoc in 
Gower. It is now commonly supposed that the men who 



122 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

used the polished stone tools were of the Iberian race. 
The Goidels who succeeded them were furnished with 
implements of bronze. Their weapons were the axe, 
sword, spear, and knife. The specimens found vary 
considerably in efficiency, and show that the early Celtic 
artificer only gradually learnt the mastery of his craft. 
It was left to the Brython to bring with him the more 
effective iron weapon. The Brython had been eight or 
nine centuries in Britain before he penetrated into South 
Wales, but there is no reason to suppose that the Goidels 
of Glamorgan retained the use of bronze weapons until 
the Brythonic conquest in the fifth century of our 
era. They must have learnt to some extent the use of 
iron from contact with their Brythonic neighbours in the 
centre of Wales. Numerous specimens of iron and bronze 
instruments are to be seen in the Cardiff Museum. 

Besides the implements and fragments of pottery dis- 
covered casually in different localities, there are several 
prehistoric monuments in various parts of the county. 
Glamorganshire as a whole is particularly rich in such 
remains. The chief objects of antiquarian interest are 
encampments, cromlechs, barrows, cairns, stone circles, 
and menhirs or long stones. 

Encampments are very numerous, and are to be found 
on the summits of many of the hills, and in one or two 
elevated positions on the shore. They consist of a series 
of embankments and ditches thrown round the top of a 
hill or drawn across the corner of some projecting cliff to 
render the situation more difficult of approach. Probably 
in time of warfare the tribesmen gathered their cattle and 



ANTIQUITIES 



123 



other belongings within these enclosures and further forti- 
fied them by the erection of a wooden stockade. It is 
difficult to assign these earthworks to any particular period. 
Probably they were used in all periods. The positions 




St Lythan's Cromlech 



were no doubt re-fortiiied more effectually as each new 
race succeeded to the inheritance of the old. The form 
of the camp varied with the nature of the ground, though 
the Romans seem invariably to have made their entrench- 
ments rectangular. 



124 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Next to these early methods of warfare we know 
most about ancient methods of sepulture. The principal 
sepulchral monuments are cromlechs (or dolmens), barrows, 
cairns, and menhirs. A cromlech is a group of stones 
arranged like a table. A flat slab is supported horizontally 
on three or more upright stones. Together, these formed 
a chamber in, or under which the dead man was placed, the 
corpse being sometimes supplied with his weapons and a 
food vessel. The cromlech was in some cases covered with 
a mound of earth. In the case of most cromlechs, however, 
the earth has either been removed or never existed, and 
the chamber is exposed. The largest cromlech in Great 
Britain is near St Nicholas, and this still retains evident 
traces of the mound which once covered it. In the same 
neighbourhood, near Dyffryn House, is another very fine 
specimen, which is completely exposed; and a third well- 
known example is Arthur's Stone on the summit of 
Cefn-y-Bryn in Gower. It is evident from the unwrought 
condition of the stones that they belong to a very early 
age, and they are now generally assigned by antiquaries 
to the Neolithic or Iberian period. 

The Celts introduced cremation. The ashes were 
enclosed in a vessel and then placed in a small chamber 
built like a miniature cromlech and called a cist-faen. 
Some of these little stone chests were surrounded by a 
circle of upright stones. Though the large stone circles 
like Stonehenge and Avebury may have been used for 
worship and were possibly also rude astronomical appli- 
ances, there is little doubt that the smaller circles, such 
as those found in Glamorganshire, were merely sepulchral 



ANTIQUITIES 



125 



monuments. They probably belong to the Bronze or 
Goidelic period. The chief stone circles in the county 
are on Carn Llechart near Llangyfelach, on Cefn-y- 
Gwrhyd near Llangiwg, and on Drummau Hill near 
Neath. 

Sometimes the bodies or ashes of the dead were placed 




King Arthur's Stone 



in mounds or barrows. A great number of these exist in 
diflFerent parts of the county, generally on the hill tops, 
or in the vicinity of some ancient trackway. When the 
barrow contains a chamber it is probably an Iberic tomb; 
if it contains no chamber, it is probably of Celtic con- 
struction. In some cases where the earth was scanty, 



126 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



the grave was covered with a heap of stones called a cairn, 
though many of the cairns seen on the tops of the highest 
hills are merely landmarks. A barrow of very large size 
is generally called a tumulus, and was probably a place 
of general sepulture, though some of them may have 
been ancient signalling stations. A very fine tumulus 
occurs on the top of Crug-yr-Afon in the centre of the 
county. 

The menhir [maen-hir or long stone) is another form 
of sepulchral monument, also believed to be of Goidelic 

origin. It is simply an unhewn 
or roughly-shaped stone or slab 
placed upright in the earth, 
often of large size. Of these 
there are many in the county. 
Very interesting are certain 
stones with a roughly-cut in- 
scription giving the dead man's 
name in Welsh or Latin or 
sometimes in both languages. 
"^^ The most remarkable examples 
Ogam Stone near Kenfig ^f ^he kind in Glamorgan- 
shire are the stones at Kenfig 
and Loughor. These have the epitaph cut not only on 
the face of the stone in Latin, but in "Ogams" as they are 
called, notches cut on either side of the edge of the stone. 
These characters are now recognised as a Gaelic method 
of writing. As they were executed in post-Roman times, 
it is evident that the Goidelic language could not have 
disappeared from Wales until after the departure of the 




ANTIQUITIES 



127 



Romans. It is argued from this fact that the Brythonic 
tribes did not overrun South Wales until the fifth century 




The Goblin Stone 



A.D. Some, however, maintain that the stones may have 
been erected by immigrants from Ireland. 



128 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Amongst the more notable of the other inscribed 
stones scattered about the county are the Bodvoc stone 
on Margam mountain, the Tome stone at Margam, the 
Teyrnoc stone on Cefn Brithdir, a defaced stone on Cefn 
Gelligaer, and the Macaritinus stone near Neath. 

The rehcs of the Roman period are few. They 
consist chiefly of encampments and the foundations of 
villas and military fortifications. Three Roman roads 
traversed Glamorgan, the Via Julia which came out of 
Monmouthshire and skirting the coast crossed the low- 
lands from Cardiff to Loughor ; the Sam Htr which ran 
over Gelligaer mountain from Cardiff to Brecon ; and 
the Sam Helen^ which traversed the vale of Neath and 
connected Neath with Brecon. It is very doubtful 
whether these roads were originally of Roman construc- 
tion. They were probably ancient trackways utilised by 
the Romans for the movements of troops. There were 
four military stations along the route of the Fia yulia — 
Tibia Amnis, Bovium, Nidum, and Leucarum. Tibia 
Amnis is now generally identified with Cardiff. That 
Nidum and Leucarum were Neath and Loughor is sug- 
gested by the similarity of the names, but there is no 
agreement about the situation of Bovium. Cowbridge, 
Bonvilston, and Boverton all claim to have been the 
site. 

The discovery of the foundations of a gateway, some 
bastions, and portions of a Roman wall surrounding the 
grounds of Cardiff Castle prove, as former rectangular 
embankments suggested, that the castle stands on the 
site of a considerable Roman fortification. More recent 







o 

d 

s 

O 



W. G. 



130 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

excavations have disclosed another Roman fortress and 
the fragments of some baths near Gelligaer. Both places 
w^ere probably permanent garrison stations on the Welsh 
frontier. Roman camps exist at Caerau and Bonvilston, 
on the supposed line of the Fia Julia ; also at Penydarren 
and near Colbren on the north border, on Mynydd- 
y-Gaer near Bridgend and on Mynydd Margam. The 
foundations of Roman buildings have been unearthed 
at Ely near Cardiff, and at Llantwit Major, but the 
infrequency of such discoveries, and the general absence 
of evidences of domestic life, tend to show that the 
county was occupied by the Romans only in a military 
sense, and that the ancient inhabitants were but little 
influenced by Roman civilisation, though the Latin in- 
scriptions on the standing stones prove that they must 
have acquired some Roman customs. 

19. Architecture — {a) Ecclesiastical. 

Though Glamorganshire possesses one or two notable 
churches, its display of ecclesiastical architecture is, on the 
whole, disappointing. The reason for this is not far to 
seek. Architecture depends for its development both 
upon an adequate supply of building material and upon 
the existence of a body of skilled workmen. There is 
an abundance of stone in Glamorgan, but it does not 
lend itself to the finest manipulation; and the political 
condition of the county was too disturbed to give the 
Welsh much chance of acquiring the art of building. 
The English practically learnt their architecture from 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 131 

the Normans, who were the most accomplished craftsmen 
of the day. But while in England the Norman conquest 
eventually took the form of a racial amalgamation, in 
Wales it remained a foreign occupation. The Welsh 
had little social and religious intercourse with their 
Norman masters. The buildings which the Normans 
themselves reared were either castles, or monasteries for 
the accommodation of foreign monks. Ecclesiastical 
architecture as a rule owed its growth to the influence 
of the monasteries. They supplied the resources and 
trained the workmen. But the Welsh disliked the 
monks almost as cordially as they hated the barons. 
They regarded them as foreign garrisons in spiritual 
guise; so that Welsh architecture profited but little by 
the existence of the monasteries. 

The Norman conquest, by the dislocation of national 
life, likewise prevented Welsh ecclesiastical art from de- 
veloping on its own lines. That it had a tradition of its 
own is abundantly proved by the existence of the large 
number of elaborately-worked crosses which are scattered 
up and down the Principality. Glamorganshire is rich in 
them. There are two especially fine collections of them 
within the county, one at Llantwit Major and the other 
at Margam. Both of these places were active centres of 
church life before the coming of the Norman, and both 
must have possessed schools of skilled workmen. The 
crosses usually take the form of an upright pillar or a 
wheel cross, highly ornamented with an intricate pattern 
of plait work in bold relief, and, as their inscriptions show, 
they were mostly sepulchral monuments. Sometimes 

9—2 



132 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

they bear in addition a rude attempt at figure sculp- 
ture. They are probably not earlier than the eighth 
or ninth centuries, and many of them are mutilated. 
Besides the groups at Margam and Llantwit there are 
some good specimens at Merthyr Mawr, Coychurch, and 
Llangan. At the latter place the cross exhibits a crude 
representation of the Crucifixion. In the churchyard of 
Llandough near Cardiff there is a fine but imperfect 
specimen of a figured cross. No Celtic churches have 
come down to us, but many of the existing churches 
were no doubt built on sites consecrated by ancient 
ecclesiastical associations. At Llantwit Major and Llan- 
carfan were Welsh monastic institutions, and the cathedral 
of Llandaff perpetuates the Welsh episcopal traditions of 
the place. There are some fine examples of Norman 
and English ecclesiastical architecture within the county, 
but the best buildings are, as we should naturally expect, 
monastic in origin. The parish churches, as a rule, are 
small and poor. 

A preliminary word on the various styles of English 
architecture is necessary before we consider the churches 
and other important buildings of our county. 

Pre-Norman or (as it is usually, though with no great 
certainty termed) Saxon building in England was the 
work of early craftsmen with an imperfect knowledge 
of stone construction, who commonly used rough rubble 
walls, no buttresses, small semi-circular or triangular 
arches, and square towers with what is termed "long- 
and-short work " at the quoins or corners. It survives 
almost solely in portions of small churches. 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 133 

The Norman conquest started a widespread building 
of massive churches and castles in the continental style 
called Romanesque, which in England has got the name 
of "Norman." They had walls of great thickness, semi- 
circular vaults, round-headed doors and windows, and 
massive square towers. 

From 1 1 50 to 1200 the building became lighter, the 
arches pointed, and there was perfected the science of 
vaulting, by which the weight is brought upon piers and 
buttresses. This method of building, the " Gothic," 
originated from the endeavour to cover the widest and 
loftiest areas with the greatest economy of stone. The 
first English Gothic, called " Early English," from about 
1 180 to 1250, is characterised by slender piers (commonly 
of marble), lofty pointed vaults, and long, narrow, lancet- 
headed windows. After 1250 the windows became 
broader, divided up, and ornamented by patterns of 
tracery, while in the vault the ribs were multiplied. The 
greatest elegance of English Gothic was reached from 
1260 to 1290, at which date English sculpture was at 
its highest, and art in painting, coloured glass making, 
and general craftsmanship at its zenith. 

After 1300 the structure of stone buildings began to 
be overlaid with ornament, the window tracery and vault 
ribs were of intricate patterns, the pinnacles and spires 
loaded with crocket and ornament. This later style is 
known as " Decorated," and came to an end with the 
Black Death, which stopped all building for a time. 

With the changed conditions of life the type of build- 
ing changed. With curious uniformity and quickness 



134 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

the style called " Perpendicular " — which is unknown 
abroad — developed after 1360 in all parts of England and 
lasted with scarcely any change up to 1520. As its name 
implies, it is characterised by the perpendicular arrange- 
ment of the tracery and panels on walls and in windows, 
and it is also distinguished by the flattened arches and the 
square arrangement of the mouldings over them, by the 
elaborate vault-traceries (especially fan-vaulting), and by 
the use of flat roofs and towers without spires. 

The medieval styles in England ended with the 
dissolution of the monasteries (1530 — 1540), for the 
Reformation checked the building of churches. There 
succeeded the building of manor-houses, in which the 
style called " Tudor " arose — distinguished by flat-headed 
windows, level ceilings, and panelled rooms. The orna- 
ments of classic style were introduced under the influences 
of Renaissance sculpture and distinguish the "Jacobean " 
style, so called after James I. About this time the pro- 
fessional architect arose. ' Hitherto, building had been 
entirely in the hands of the builder and the craftsman. 

LlandaflF Cathedral is not only the principal but also 
the most noteworthy ecclesiastical building in the county. 
It is one of the few cathedrals built strictly in the form 
of a parallelogram. It is a long structure of many styles 
standing on the right bank of the TaflF. It was com- 
menced by Bishop Urban in 11 20 on the site of some 
earlier fabric and underwent constant alteration and 
extension up to the end of the fifteenth century. After 
the Reformation, when it was despoiled of its possessions, 
it fell into decay, from which it was not rescued until 




Llandaff Cathedral 



136 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

the middle of the last century. It consists of a nave, 
choir, chapter-house, and Lady chapel. Its finest feature 
is the west front, which is flanked by two lofty towers. 
The earliest portions of the church are the richly sculp- 
tured Norman archway at the east end of the choir and 
the two Norman doorways in the north and south 
walls of the nave. The nave and west front are Early 
English, and the chapter-house, which has a characteristic 
vault, is of the same period, but rather later in date. 
The Lady chapel, which is also vaulted, is a good example 
of early Decorated work, and was built between 1285 
and 1287, when the earlier Gothic architects were feeling 
their way to a more elaborate style. The presbytery and 
aisles were remodelled a little later, when the Decorated 
style was fully developed. The only feature belonging 
to the Perpendicular period is the north-west tower, 
which is said to have been erected by Jasper Tudor. 
Its companion tower, which carries a spire, is modern. 

Next to Llandaff Cathedral, the finest church in the 
county is Ewenny Priory. It is the most splendid 
example of pure Norman architecture in Wales. The 
building is cruciform, with a massive central tower, and 
consists of nave, choir, and south transept. The north 
transept has been demolished, but otherwise the fabric is 
unimpaired. The barrel-vaulting of the choir is parti- 
cularly noteworthy. With the exception of the gateway 
the monastery has been demolished. 

Margam church is another example of Norman work. 
It was once the nave of a large Cistercian monastery, 
the choir of which has been destroyed. Adjoining it. 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 137 

however, are the ruins of a beautiful chapter-house, which 
is a splendid specimen of Early English architecture. The 
foundations of the dismantled choir and some fragments 
of the domestic buildings still remain. 

Neath Abbey, which is traditionally reputed to have 
been the work of the same architect, is of Early English 




Ewenny Priory Church 

Style. The church, which was once regarded as one or 
the most splendid ecclesiastical edifices in Wales, is very 
ruinous, but a large vaulted chamber in the adjacent 
buildings is in a good state of preservation. A most 
interesting but rather uncouth structure is the church of 
Llantwit Major. It belongs chiefly to the thirteenth 



138 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



and fifteenth centuries, and exhibits the usual monastic 
arrangement. The building is divided into two by a 
central tower. At the west end are the ruins of a Lady 
chapel, with an adjoining chamber, and on the rising 
ground above are a gateway and a circular columbarium. 
A priory and some habitations of Black and Grey Friars 
existed at Cardiff, but these have disappeared, though 
the foundations of the latter can still be traced. 




St Illtyd's, Llantwit Major 



Of the parochial churches the most notable are 
Llancarfan, Coity, and Coychurch. There are Norman 
doorways at Marcross and Rhossili ; Llancarfan has some 
Transitional Norman arcades; Cheriton is a good example 
of Early English ; Coity, Coychurch, and St Fagan's are 
striking examples of the Decorated period; and St John's, 
Cardiff, is Perpendicular and has a particularly fine tower. 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 139 

A peculiar feature of some of the Glamorganshire 
churches is their provision for defence in case of necessity. 
Ewenny Priory was enclosed by fortifications, and the 
church itself was made to minister to the security of the 
monks. The nave is shut off from the rest of the build- 
ings by a stone wall, and the battlements of the massive 





Newton Church 

tower are pierced with loopholes for arrows. The tower 
of Newton Nottage is built almost like a castle keep and 
still shows the brackets for the support of the wooden 
staging which accommodated the defenders. The churches 
on the Gower coast have likewise towers capable of 
affording security in times of peril. 




Churchyard Cross, St Donates 



5yertbi) : 



^y 







iljofDsG 



ishobsLas. 





\-rd 




«V, 







•C.7-Cyai)S. 



ities 



ARCHITECTURE— ECCLESIASTICAL 141 

Woodwork is rare in the county. There is a poor 
screen and some stalls at Cowbridge, and the dilapidated 
remnants of a once rich screen at Llancarfan. Gileston 
church has a fine old door. Llantwit Major possesses 
a beautiful stone screen, and there is a curiously carved 
stone pulpit at Newton Nottage. Llanmaes church 
shows some medieval frescoes, and there are some later 
mural paintings at St Donat's. Several churches retain 
portions of their churchyard crosses, but only Llangan, 
St Donat's, and St Mary Hill preserve them in their 
entirety. 



20. Architecture — {b) Military. 

The military architecture of Glamorganshire offers a 
very striking contrast to the ecclesiastical. The churches 
are few and poor, the castles were numerous and splendid. 
There were over 40 within the confines of the county. 
They were not, however, all residential castles ; some 
were merely garrison stations or military block-houses. 
They were all the work of the Norman conquerors or 
their descendants, though the ancient Welsh princes are 
credited with having had castles of some sort. The 
Normans had their own military methods, and the first 
thing they did to secure the foothold they obtained in 
Welsh territory was to erect at frequent intervals and in 
suitable positions temporary fortresses of turf and stakes. 
These were moated mounds crowned by a stockade and 
enclosed by a rampart. Upon the mound was eventually 




Sketch Map showing the Chief Castles of Wales and the Border Counties 



142 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



erected a stone donjon or keep. The distribution as well 
as the design of these fortresses was determined by 
strategical considerations. They were part of a system 
which had in view the defence of the whole territory as 
well as the protection of personal estates. The Normans 
had not been long in the country before they drew a 
string of permanent castles right across the southern 




Fonmon Castle 



portion of the county from the Taff to the Loughor 
river. Fortresses were also erected to guard the passes 
from the hills and to watch the approaches from the 
shore. 

The typical Norman fortress consisted of a strongly- 
built rectangular keep, which contained the living rooms 
and store cellars. This was generally surrounded by an 
outer court protected by high and embattled walls and 



ARCHITECTURE— MILITARY 



143 



encircled by a moat. The construction naturally varied 
with the peculiarities of the site, which was chosen 
both for its importance and inaccessibility. Various im- 
provements in the art of castle-building were made from 
time to time as experience suggested. In the times of 
Richard I and John the keep became circular in form, 
and drum towers were placed at the angles of the outer 
court, which enabled the garrison to clear the walls of 




Oystermouth Castle 

assailants. In the reign of the Edwards a new type of 
fortress was introduced. The keep was first removed 
from the centre and placed upon the walls, and the 
enclosure was divided into two courts ; but towards the 
end of the period the keep was altogether discarded, and 
the courts instead of being adjacent were made concentric, 
the dwelling rooms being ranged round the inner ward. 
The fortifications were buttressed with drum towers and 



144 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



the gateways were much strengthened. Many of the 
later castles were elaborate and extensive structures in 
which comfort as well as security was considered, and 
were provided with suites of apartments for the owner's 
family, a large banqueting hall, and a chapel. The 
original Norman castles often underwent reconstruction 
or were rebuilt in later times. 




Coity Castle and Church 

Most of the Glamorganshire castles are now in ruins. 
Some, like St George's and Scurlage, have quite dis- 
appeared ; others, like Sully and Llangynwyd, have been 
razed to the foundations. The hill forts of Castell 
Morgraig and, perhaps, Morlais seem never to have 
been completed. Cardiff and Castell Coch have been 
recently reconstructed, and Fonmon and St Donat's, 
though retaining some of their original features, have 



ARCHITECTURE— MILITARY 145 

been transformed into residences and have seldom lacked 
an occupant. Some are noteworthy merely for their 
picturesqueness, whilst others are typical of their class. 
Ogmore preserves a fragment of its rectangular keep ; 
at Cardiff the keep is polygonal, but characteristic of 
its period. Oystermouth has some Decorated tracery. 
Coity possesses two adjacent courts, with the keep on the 
walls ; and Caerphilly (see p. 1 12) is a famous and typical 
example of a concentric castle of the most elaborate kind. 
Weobley is probably a late fortress. Some of the medieval 
towns were walled for defence. Cardiff, Kenfig, and 
Cowbridge were so protected. Kenfig has disappeared, 
and the fortifications of Cardiff have been destroyed, 
but Cowbridge still retains one of its gateways and a few 
fragments of walling. 



21. Architecture — (c) Domestic. 

We shall look in vain for early Welsh houses. A 
Welshman lived for the most part an out-of-doors life ; 
his ideas of personal comfort were limited and he went in 
constant fear of disturbance. His property therefore was 
always of a movable kind which could be packed up at 
the first alarm and carried off to the mountains. His 
house was merely a rude timber structure in which the 
chief and his men ate and slept together round the same 
hearth, with their horses near at hand. The Englishman's 
house, on the other hand, was literally his castle. It was 
both dwelling-place and fortress, for his security depended 

w. G. 10 



] 46 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

not on the rapidity of his movements but on the strength 
of his walls. Before the fifteenth century domestic archi- 
tecture in Wales can scarcely be said to have existed. 
The Welsh kept to their primitive dw^elling in the moun- 
tains, and the Norman lord shut himself up in his castle. 
The peasants herded in hovels round the strongholds, and 
the houses of the tow^nsmen v^^ere mostly of wood, and 
were promptly pulled down in cases of fire. It was not 
until the rise of the country gentry as a separate class 
that domestic architecture underwent any great develop- 
ment. 

The manor house as first constructed was simply a 
large hall, the upper half of which was reserved for the 
master and his family, and the lower allotted to the 
servants. There were separate sleeping apartments, and 
the larger halls were provided with a " solar " or with- 
drawing room for the ladies, and a gallery for minstrels. 
Though not military in character, the building was made 
capable of defence and was sometimes moated. In Tudor 
times, when the protection of the regular law did away 
with the necessity of fortifications, personal comfort was 
much more studied. Houses became more elaborate and 
commodious. The household no longer lived a common 
life, and privacy was obtained by adding to the number 
of separate apartments. In the seventeenth century 
architecture became more artificial. Architects who had 
studied abroad came back with foreign ideas and began to 
decorate houses with classical ornaments. This taste, 
however, displayed itself chiefly in the more pretentious 
buildings. Our domestic architecture never quite lost 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 



147 



touch with the Gothic traditions of the Middle Ages, 
and the smaller mansions and country cottages remained 






I I 




Old Town Hall, Llantwit Major 

picturesque and homely. In the reign of Queen Anne 
houses became more regular and stiffer in style, though 
they managed to preserve an air of stateliness. Later, 

ID — 2 



148 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



architectural taste declined, and grace of outline was 
sacrificed to considerations of utility. 

There are few early houses in Glamorganshire, though 
a number of Tudor mansions display earlier features. 
An example of an early residence which approximated to 
a castle is the ancient episcopal palace at LlandaflF, which 
was destroyed by Glyndwr in 1402. Llantwit Major 




Sker House 



town-hall is a purely domestic building dating perhaps 
in substance from the fifteenth century. The quaint- 
looking hospice of St John at Bridgend is a fifteenth 
century building of the humbler kind. Llanmihangel 
Place was originally a fifteenth century castellated man- 
sion, but Tudor gables have taken the place of the castel- 
lations and the great hall has been divided into separate 



ARCHITECTURE— DOMESTIC 



149 



chambers. Castell-y-Mynach, near Creigiau, though 
chiefly a seventeenth century building, still retains a 
chamber and an open timbered roof of the fifteenth 
century. Traces of fifteenth century work appear like- 
wise in the walls of Flemingston Court, which was 
once a fortified manor house, though its chief feature is a 
typical Jacobean hall. Characteristic examples of six- 
teenth century architecture are to be found in Nottage 




Tudor Gardens, St Donat's Castle 



Court, which contains some good panelled rooms, 
Llancaich House, Sker House, and St Fagan's Castle, 
a many-gabled mansion erected in 1578 within the 
fortifications of an ancient castle. Beaupre, which was 
transformed from a castle into a manor house, exhibits a 
beautiful renaissance doorway added to its inner court in 
1 600 by a Bridgend mason named Twrch. St Donat's 



150 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Castle, a very composite building of almost all periods 
from Norman times downwards, contains a good deal of 
seventeenth century work, and some of its state apart- 
ments are embellished with the carving of Grinling 
Gibbons. Llansannor Court is a picturesque Jacobean 
manor house. Within the precincts of Neath Abbey are 
the ruins of a mansion built in 1650 out of the wreckage 
of the monastery, and incorporating some ecclesiastical 
features. The remains of the Herbert House at CardiflP, 
built out of the material of the Grey Friars habitation, 
comes down from Tudor times, as do the ruins of Llan- 
trithyd Place. A good example of a house illustrating 
the architectural changes introduced in the eighteenth 
century, is Cefn Mably on the banks of the Rhymney, 
where the original gables have been replaced by dormer 
windows. Nash Manor is another Tudor building with 
eighteenth century additions. Ruperra Castle, though 
popularly attributed to Inigo Jones, was rebuilt after a 
fire in 1783, though it preserves its original seventeenth 
century porch. The Bishop's house at LlandafF, Briton 
Ferry Manor, and the Gnoll near Neath, belong entirely 
to the eighteenth century, and are very characteristic of 
the time. 

In the rural districts of Glamorgan the cottages have 
a distinct character and conform more or less to one type. 
They are low beetled-browed buildings, with thick squat 
chimneys and a steep overhanging thatch, which curves 
itself over the upper storey windows. Their appearance, 
though a little singular, is not unpicturesque. An almost 
universal feature of these humbler country homes is the 



152 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

whitewash on their walls. The custom is of imme- 
morial antiquity, and frequent reference to the " white 
cots " of Morganwg is made in the songs of the bards. 

In the Gower peninsula a different type of cottage is 
seen. The dwelling is roofed with faggots, and thatched 
with sedge, and in the walls are bed-places. 



22. Communications — Past and Present. 

The art of road-making is in the British Isles a 
modern accomplishment, and Wales was one of the last 
districts where it made progress. In the prehistoric ages 
communication was established by trackways across the 
mountains, for a hill path afforded both directness and 
security, and loads could be carried on the backs of 
animals. Many of these ancient pathways, marked at 
intervals by burial mounds, can still be traced amongst 
the hills between the Rhondda and Avon rivers. The 
Romans were great road builders, though the roads which 
they built in England were comparatively few and were 
constructed chiefly for military purposes. It is doubtful 
whether they made any roads in Wales at all. Though 
three Roman roads have been mentioned, and were 
unquestionably used as highways, yet there is nothing 
to indicate that they were planned or paved in the usual 
Roman fashion. They probably ran along the line of 
some earlier trackway. Several portions of causeway, 
probably of Roman date, are, however, existent in the 
county. 



COMMUNICATIONS 



153 



From the time of the Romans almost to our own days 
Glamorganshire had practically no proper roads, and as 
late as 1780 the only coal brought to Cardiff was on 
horseback, and occasionally in barrows. At the beginning 
of the nineteenth century a Parliamentary enquiry was 
held as to the character of the roads in South Wales, and 
a few main turnpike roads were constructed, in the face of 





Cutting on the road near the Mumbles 

-much popular opposition, between the more important 
towns, but little was done to open up communication 
with the outlying districts of the north, except by the 
construction of canals and tramways. The roads re- 
mained few and poor until the abolition of the turnpikes, 
and the establishment of a general system of road super- 
vision. Great improvements have been effected in the 
character of the roads within the past 30 years, but 



154 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

though much care is now bestowed upon their upkeep, 
Glamorganshire can perhaps hardly claim to be pre-eminent 
for its highways. As a rule they are somewhat narrow, 
though their surface is excellent. In the neighbourhood 
of the towns their improvement in condition is very 
marked. Two main highways run across the centre of 
the county from east to west ; one puts Cardiff in con- 
nection with Neath and the western parts of the shire, 
the other with Bridgend by way of Llantrissant. Some 
good roads run up the valleys of the TafF and Nedd and 
put both Cardiff and Neath in communication with 
Merthyr, whilst another excellent high road leaves Swansea 
for Carmarthen. There are a large number of fairly good 
secondary roads connecting the villages, and the roads in 
Gower, once extremely poor, are now much improved. 

Glamorganshire to some degree owes the comparative 
backwardness of its roads to the rapid extension of its 
railway system. The country is admirably served in 
this respect. A perfect network of lines covers the face 
of the land, and the remotest valleys have been rendered 
accessible by the engineer. With the exception of 
the Metropolis, Glamorganshire has more railways to 
the square mile than any other part of the kingdom. 
The railway naturally developed out of the tramroad, 
and Glamorganshire can claim the honour of having first 
discovered the possibilities of the locomotive. In i8o2 
a tramway was laid down from Merthyr to Abercynon for 
the conveyance of the product of the ironworks to the 
Glamorganshire Canal, which had previously been con- 
structed. Over this track an experimental journey was 



COMMUNICATIONS 155 

made by Trevithick's high-pressure locomotive in 1804. 
The first regular railway constructed in Glamorgan was 
the TafF Vale, which commenced running between Mer- 
thyr and Cardiff in 1841. 

Glamorganshire is now chiefly served by the Great 
Western, which absorbed the old South Wales Railway, 
and runs across the lowlands from Cardiff to Loughor. 
It has a number of local branches, and by means of the 
Vale of Neath line works also round the northern border 
of the county. Two other trunk lines, the London and 
North Western and the Midland, have connections 
between Swansea and the north ; the former also reaches 
Merthyr from Abergavenny. A great number of local 
lines bring the coal traffic from the hills to the coast. 
The Taff Vale and Rhymney railways link Cardiff with 
the eastern coalfield. The Barry railway serves the Barry 
docks, and the Port Talbot and the Rhondda and Swansea 
Bay lines are the channels by which the coal from the 
centre of the county reaches Swansea. The latter Ime 
penetrates the hills by a remarkable tunnel, two miles 
in length. A picturesque viaduct carries the Vale of 
Glamorgan railway across the glade of Porthkerry Park 
to Bridgend, a long trestle bridge takes the Great Western 
line over the Loughor river into Carmarthenshire, and 
a fine iron-girdered viaduct spanning the Rhymney valley 
enables the" Barry railway to reach the Monmouthshire 

coalfield. 

Though railways are the most efficient means of 
transport they were not the earliest. The age of railroads 
was preceded by an era of canals. Rivers are the natural 



156 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



channels of communication, but as none of the local rivers 
are navigable except at their estuaries, artificial waterways 
had to be constructed before the mineral wealth of the 
hills could reach the towns. The first canal to be made 
was the Glamorganshire Canal, which linked together 
Merthyr and Cardiff. Begun in 1790, it was opened for 
traffic in 1794, but the entire canal was not completed 




Porthkerry Viaduct 

till 1798. The difficulty of the fall of 600 feet between 
the two places had to be overcome by means of locks. 
In 1818 the canal was taken up the Cynon valley to 
Aberdare, and was afterwards extended from Cardiff to 
the sea. An almost contemporaneous undertaking was 
the construction of the Vale of Neath Canal from Glyn 
Neath to Aberdulais, the course of which was subsequently 
lengthened as far as Briton Ferry. Thirty years later 



COMMUNICATIONS 157 

the Tennant Canal was cut from Port Tennant, near 
Swansea, along the edge of the Crymlyn bog to Aber- 
dulais in the Neath valley, and was carried across the Nedd 
by an aqueduct. Another engineering work executed 
about the same time was the Swansea Canal, which estab- 
lished communication between Swansea and the rich 
mineral district lying to the north. It runs up the Tawe 
valley to Ynysbydafau in Brecon, a distance of 17 miles, 
and though not as long as the Glamorgan Canal, the 
difficulties of construction were even greater, for it rises 
873 feet. Though the canals in Glamorganshire, as 
elsewhere, were soon superseded by the railways, they 
have nowhere been worked with greater profit or enjoyed 
a longer period of prosperity. The traffic on them has 
now largely diminished, and some are obsolete. It has 
been said that the Act which authorised their construction 
was the Magna Charta of the county's prosperity. 

23. Administration. 

The political institutions of the Welsh were to a large 
extent determined by the physical peculiarities of the 
country which they inhabited. A land of mountains is 
seldom favourable to the social cohesion of its people. 
Wales never possessed any political unity. It was divided 
up into a number of petty kingdoms which were con- 
stantly at war one with another. The most that even 
the statecraft of the great Llewelyn could accomplish 
was to gather these principalities together into a sort of 
loose federation. Originally each of these Welsh kingdoms 



1 58 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

probably represented the " gwlad " or tribal area, dis- 
tinguished one from another by differences of dialect and 
custom. Each kingdom consisted of a number of " can- 
trefsj" which were the regions occupied by particular 
clans. Their limits corresponded in some degree with 
geographical distinctions. The kingdom of Morganwg 
was said to consist of seven cantrefs — Gorfynydd, which 
stretched from the mouth of the Tawe to the estuary of 
the Daw ; Penychen, which reached from the Daw to the 
Taff; Y Breiniol, which lay between the Taff and the 
Rhymney ; Gwynllwg, which was the territory enclosed 
between the Rhymney and the Usk ; Gwent Iscoed and 
Gwent Uchcoed, which lay between the Usk and Wye ; 
and Ewias and Erging, which were beyond the Monnow 
on the outlying borders of Herefordshire. The cantrefs 
displayed considerable independence, and had their own 
courts, but with the inevitable Welsh tendency to dis- 
integration, as tribal ties became weaker, they eventually 
split up into smaller divisions, called " commotes," 
which were possibly assemblies of families, and which, 
like the cantrefs themselves, were ruled by their own 
customs and decided their own quarrels without much 
reference to any superior authority. Gower or Gwyr 
was a commote of one of the cantrefs of the kingdom 
of Deheubarth, and included not only the cliff-bound 
peninsula but the wilder country to the north between 
the Tawe and the Loughor. Among the Welsh, blood 
relationship was the one great bond, and the basis of the 
social organisation was the family. The political system 
was patriarchal, not territorial, and was built up on a 



ADMINISTRATION 159 

foundation of kinship. The people were spread over the 
country in occupation of their own personal holdings and 
not, as in England, collected together in villages. To 
attain poHtical union amid such conditions, except under 
the pressure of external necessity, was an impossibility, 
and political exigencies led eventually to the fusion of 
allied cantrefs into a small kingdom under the rule of the 

tribal head. 

At the Norman conquest, so far as it effectually 
prevailed, the old Celtic system disappeared. The kingdom 
became the Norman lordship, and the lands were parcelled 
out to the different tenants on strict feudal tenure. The 
government was autocratic and arbitrary. Each fief, and 
each of the manors into which the fief was divided, had 
its own petty courts, but they severally exercised their 
authority under the paramount control of the county 
court of the lord, which recognised only the superior 
jurisdiction of the crown. The maintenance of the 
peace was a matter of local rather than of national 
concern, and the administration of justice was summary. 
The physical characteristics of the country and the 
independent spirit of the natives, however, compelled the 
Normans to modify to some extent their accustomed 
system. The more inaccessible regions were left in 
possession of the native chieftains, and were very largely 
allowed to retain their own laws and customs, though the 
overlord sometimes found it necessary to assert his authority 
by the expulsion of a local ruler. In Glamorganshire the 
districts of Senghenydd, Meisgyn, Glyn Rhondda, and 
Avon were under native rulers, and even the lordship of 



160 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Coity, though exercised by a Norman, is said to have 
retained to some extent its local customs. There is little 
doubt, however, that as time went on these native chieftains 
gradually assimilated their methods of government to the 
Norman system. 

At the final incorporation of Wales with the English 
dominions in the reign of Henry VHI, the whole ad- 
ministration of justice passed directly into the hands of 
the crown. The lordship became a true shire, and was 
henceforth entitled to be represented in Parliament. The 
King's judges came on circuit to administer justice at the 
Great Session or Assize, and a number of local magistrates 
were appointed to deal with smaller offences at the petty 
sessions. Lords Lieutenant were appointed as the King's 
representatives, and the Sheriff became the King's executive 
officer for the enforcement of the law within the confines 
of the shire. For the better preservation of the peace 
and the punishment of the evil doer the shire was divided 
into a number of hundreds under the supervision of the 
Sheriff's bailiff. For legislative purposes each county and 
the corporate towns were accorded a representative in 
Parliament. Glamorganshire sent two members ; one for 
the county, and one for the combined boroughs of Cardiff, 
Cowbridge, Llantrissant, Kenfig, Aberavon, Neath, 
Swansea, and Loughor. 

In the reign of Elizabeth — in consequence of the 
increase of pauperism, due in part to the suppression of 
the monasteries, which had up to their dissolution acted 
as the voluntary almoners of the poor — the old parochial 
system was made a feature of civil government. Each 



ADMINISTRATION 



161 



parish became responsible for the maintenance of its own 
poor, and the affairs of the parish were managed by the 
Vestry. For the convenience of administration, however, 
the parishes have since been grouped into Unions. 

This system of government has lasted practically into 
modern times. The Reform Act of 1832 and the 
Redistribution Act of 1885 introduced changes in the 




Cardiff Town Hall and Law Courts 



Parliamentary arrangements, and in 1889 a great extension 
of local government took place. The whole system of 
county administration was remodelled. County Councils 
were established for the general government of the shire, 
and the larger towns were made into county boroughs. 
The smaller corporate towns were allowed to retain their 
municipal powers, and localities which possessed no 
w. G. II 



162 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

municipalities were placed under the control of Urban 
Councils, or grouped together under the authority of 
Rural Councils, according to the character of the popula- 
tion. The management of parish matters, which had 
hitherto been in the hands of the vestry, was transferred 
to a parish council, and the administration of the Poor 
Law was left, as before, to the existing Unions. 

There are now within the county 3 county boroughs, 
3 municipal boroughs, 15 urban and several rural district 
councils, and, for the administration of the Poor Law, 
9 Poor Law Unions. The county boroughs are Cardiff, 
Swansea, and Merthyr Tydfil ; the municipal boroughs 
are Aberavon, Cowbridge, and Neath. There are 126 
civil parishes, and they are grouped together in Hundreds. 
The County Council consists of 88 members in all, 
22 aldermen and 66 councillors. The aldermen sit for 
six years and are elected by the council, the councillors 
sit for three years and are chosen by the electors. 

For the administration of justice, the county is placed 
under the jurisdiction of a Lord Lieutenant, a High 
Sheriff, and about 350 magistrates. It is included in the 
South Wales Circuit, and the Assizes are held alternately 
at Cardiff and Swansea. 

Glamorganshire has now ten Parliamentary repre- 
sentatives. The county itself is divided into five districts 
— Mid, Southern, Eastern, Rhondda, and Gower — each 
of which returns one member. The combined boroughs 
of Cardiff, Cowbridge, and Llantrissant ; the town of 
Swansea ; and the district of Swansea, likewise return 
each a member, and the Merthyr district returns two. 



ADMINISTRATION 



163 



Ecclesiastically the eastern half of the county is in the 
diocese of LlandafF, and contains the Cathedral city; 
while Swansea and Gower belong to the diocese of 
St David's. 

The educational progress of Glamorganshire has been 
as remarkable as its industrial development. Before the 






Cowbridge Grammar School 

passing of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889 
there were only four secondary schools in the shire, and, 
during the century preceding, practically the only place of 
regular instruction in the county at all was the ancient 
Grammar School of Cowbridge. Such education as 
existed was given by means of Sunday Schools and the 
so-called " Circulating Schools," which were bands of 

II — 2 



164 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



itinerating schoolmasters who visited the farmsteads to 
give occasional instruction to the inmates. These edu- 
cational deficiencies were to some extent corrected at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century by the establishment 
in the industrial districts of "workshop" schools in 
connection with the larger works. The rural districts 



iU<; 




University College, Cardiff 

had to content themselves with such learning as could be 
obtained at the dame's school. The passing of the 
Education Act of 1870 made school attendance com- 
pulsory for the young, and brought into existence the 
School Boards. In 1889 special education committees 
were appointed to look after the interests of secondary 
education; but by the subsequent Act of 1902 the whole 



ADMINISTRATION 165 

of the intermediate and elementary education of the 
county was placed in the hands of the County and 
Borough Councils, who have special committees to deal 
with the subject. There are now 20 intermediate and 
over 400 elementary schools in the county. The Uni- 
versity College of Cardiff was opened in 1883, and has 
since become one of the constituent Colleges of the 
University of Wales. In addition to this centre of 
higher education there is at Swansea a Technical School, 
and a college for training female elementary teachers. 



34. The Roll of Honour. 

Welshmen have never lacked ability or enterprise, 
and many have attained to considerable distinction. 
Their fervent and imaginative temperament has fre- 
quently been wedded to more practical qualities, and 
men of affairs as well as poets and preachers have sprung 
from Welsh soil. Glamorganshire, however, has con- 
tributed comparatively few names of first-rate eminence 
to the roll of Welsh celebrities, though it has produced 
many whose achievements have been sufficiently notable 
to rescue their memories from oblivion. It is only possible 
here to give the names of the most remarkable. 

Notwithstanding its stormy history Glamorganshire 
has had few soldiers of renown. All the prominent 
leaders were either foreigners or Welshmen from other 
counties. Of the local heroes the most celebrated was 
Ivor Bach, the great little lord of Senghenydd, whose 



166 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

exploit in scaling the walls of Cardiff Castle is still 
recounted with pride. From the same district came 
Llewelyn Bren, whose insurrection for a time disturbed 
the complacency of the English barons. Another man 
of the mountains whose fame still lives amongst his 
native haunts of the Rhondda was Cadwgan-y-Fwyell, 
the trusty henchman of Glyndwr. Colonel Philip Jones, 
the friend of Cromwell, lived at Fonmon, and Cromwell 
himself had distant connections with the county, for his 
great-grandfather, whose original name was Williams, was 
a native of Llanishen. In later times Sir William Nott 
(i 782-1 845), the son of a Neath publican, distinguished 
himself by his successful military operations at Candahar. 

In spite of its maritime character Glamorganshire has 
reared few sailors of eminence. The most prominent were 
Admiral Sir Thomas Button (d. 1634), a native of Cardiff 
who explored Hudson's Bay, and did good service by 
suppressing the Channel pirates ; and Admiral Mathews 
of Llandaff (i 670-1 751), whose promising career was 
ruined by the miscarriage of his expedition against the 
French at Toulon. 

In religious devotion the Welsh have always been 
conspicuous. A number of noteworthy ecclesiastics 
and divines have been connected with Glamorganshire's 
religious history, though they have not all been sons of 
the soil. The association of the names of Teilo and 
Dyfrig with the see of Llandaff is probably fanciful. 
Cadoc, the reputed founder of Llancarfan, on the contrary, 
undoubtedly exercised considerable influence in the locality, 
though he sprang from the princely house of Gwynllwg. 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 



167 



Another equally famous name in the annals of local 
monasticism is that of Illtyd, the head of Llantwit Major. 
Of the bishops of LlandafF the most famous were Urban 




Admiral Sir Thomas Button 



{c. 1 107), the builder of the first Norman cathedral, who 
is reputed to have been of local birth ; William Morgan, 
the translator of the Welsh Bible, who occupied the see 



168 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

from 1595 to 1601 and was the first Welshman to preside 
over the diocese after a lapse of three centuries ; and 
Morgan Owen, Laud's chaplain. Of the many Non- 
conformist divines to whom the county has given birth 
the most eminent were Christopher Love (161 8-1 651), 
a Cardiff Presbyterian, who acquired notoriety for his 
anti-monarchical opinions, but was eventually put to death 
as a Royalist ; Thomas Llewelyn of Gelligaer (d. 1783), 
a Biblical scholar ; Dr Richard Price, the philosopher, 
1 723-1 791 ; and T. W. Davies, a native of Gower, a 
Nonconformist historian of repute. Christmas Evans 
(i 766-1 838), though not a Glamorganshire man, attained 
wide celebrity for his pastoral labours at Caerphilly 
and Cardiff. The most distinguished local Papist was 
Sir E. Carne of Cowbridge (d. 1561), who acted as 
ambassador at Rome for both Mary and Elizabeth. 

Several notable men of letters have had associations 
with the county though they have not all been Welshmen. 
To Caradoc of Llancarfan (d. 1157) we owe some of 
the legendary matter which has built up the Arthurian 
romances. John Walters (d. 1794), rector of Llandough 
near Cowbridge, was an eminent Welsh lexicographer. 
John Sterling, whose life Carlyle wrote, spent his early 
days at Llanbleddian ; Lady Charlotte Guest, the trans- 
lator of the Mahinogion^ was the wife of Sir John Guest, 
the Merthyr ironmaster ; the voluminous Ann Kemble, 
sister of Mrs Siddons and popularly known as " Ann 
of Swansea," passed most of her life at Swansea ; 
R. D. Blackmore, the novelist, sojourned for a time at 
Newton Nottage ; and Thomas Bowdler, the notorious 



THE ROLL OF HONOUR 



169 



expurgator of Shakespeare, is buried at Oystermouth. The 
local poets have been more numerous than distinguished. 
The birthplace of DafyddapGwilym( 1 330-68) is doubtful, 




Beau Nash 



but in no part of Wales was he held in higher honour than 
in Glamorgan. Swansea claims, though on insufficient 
evidence, to have given birth to John Gower (d. 1402) 



170 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

the personal friend of Chaucer. Amongst less notable 
songsters were Meirig Dafydd, Dafydd Benwyn {c. 1560), 
Rhys Brydydd, Llewelyn Sion, Lewis Morganwg (1500- 
1540) and Thomas Leyson of Neath (i 569-1 607). Gla- 
morganshire's most notable musicians were W. T. Rees 
(b. 1838), a Bridgend collier, and Joseph L. Parry of 
Merthyr, Professor at Cardiff College (1841-1903). 

There are few scholars of more than local celebrity. 
Sir Edward Stradling of St Donat's (i 529-1 609) was a 
generous patron of learning and renowned as a collector 
of manuscripts, and other members of the same family 
won repute for scholarship. One of the earliest pioneers 
of Welsh education was Sir Leoline Jenkins of Llantrissant 
(1625-85), the second founder of Jesus College, Oxford ; 
and another statesman who helped to complete the edu- 
cational system of the Principality was the first Lord 
Aberdare (181 5-1 893), the first vice-chancellor of the 
University of Wales, who was born at St Nicholas. 

Two Glamorganshire men of humble parentage won 
considerable local reputations as antiquaries. One was 
Edward Williams, better known as " lolo Morganwg " 
(i 743-1 826), a mason of Penon, and the other Evan 
Davies (1816-84), ^ watchmaker of Pontypridd. An 
antiquary of wider fame was George Clark (1809-98) 
who, though not a native, spent a large part of his life 
as manager of the Dowlais ironworks and wrote on 
archaeological subjects. 

Of legal celebrities the most notable occupants of the 
Bench were Judge David Jenkins of Hensol (i 582-1 663), 
whose learning procured for him the sobriquet of " the 




John Crichton Stuart, 2nd Marquis of Bute 



172 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Pillar of the Law"; Sir John Nichol of Llanmaes 
(1751-1838), who was a judge of the Admiralty and 
Vicar General; and Sir William Grove (1811-1896), 
born at Swansea, who combined a Judgeship in the High 
Court of Justice with great distinction as a physicist and 
electrician, being Professor at the London Institution from 
1840 to 1847. 

Amongst local craftsmen Richard Twrch of Bridgend 
the designer of the renaissance porch at Beaupre, and 
William Edwards {c. 1755) the builder of the single-arch 
bridge at Pontypridd, should be remembered. Glamorgan- 
shire has contributed one notable figure to the world of 
fashion in Richard Nash, "Beau Nash" (1674-1762), 
the famous M.C. of the Bath routs, who was a Swansea 
man. 

Of the great captains of industry whose enterprise 
revolutionised the commercial prospects of the county 
the most conspicuous were Dr Lane, the founder of the 
copper-smelting trade; Sir J. Guest, Richard Crawshay, 
and Richard Fothergill, the ironmasters ; and John 
Crichton Stuart, 2nd Marquis of Bute, the creator of 
modern Cardiff. 



25. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 
OF GLAMORGANSHIRE. 



(The figures in brackets after each name give the population or 
the place in 191 1, from the official returns, and those at 
the end of each paragraph are references to the pages in the 
text.) 

Aberavon (10,505), a municipal and market town at the 
mouth of the Avon. The town, wedged in between the 




Aberthaw Village 

mountains and Swansea Bay, possesses a promenade and some 
extensive sands. Its corporate charter was obtained as early 
as 1 158 A.D., and it once enjoyed Parliamentary privileges. 



174 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Collieries and tin-plate works are the chief sources of employ- 
ment, (pp. 34, 51, 160, 162.) 

Aberdare (50,830), a market town in the Cynon valley. It 
is a place of modern growth and owed its early prosperity to the 
Abernant ironworks. It now depends chiefly on its collieries, 
(pp. 28, 30, 87, 90.) 

Aberthaw, a village and decayed port at the mouth of the 
Daw. It was once famous for its lime, which was used by 
Smeaton in the construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse, (pp. 
37, 49, 86.) 

Barry (33,763), a large sea-port in the south of the county. 
Its career has been one of extraordinary prosperity. Fifty years 
ago it did not exist ; to-day it is one of the most promising ports 
in South Wales, and its docks are some of the finest in Glamorgan. 
The town forms an amphitheatre round the docks, and comprises 
the districts of Cadoxton, Barry Dock, Barry, and Barry Island. 
The last, now an island only in name, is regarded as the local 
holiday quarter, and possesses a bathing place. On the summit 
of the cliff are the foundations of an ancient chapel, and on the 
mainland is the gateway of a medieval castle, (pp. 25, 37,48, 102.) 

BishopSton (893), a village in the south of the Gower 
peninsula. A charming glen runs down from the village to the 
sea. Overhanging the mouth of the valley is Pwlldu Head, a fine 
limestone promontory crowned by a camp. (p. 52.) 

Boverton, a hamlet near Llantwit Major, believed by some 
to have been the Bo^ium of the Romans. Near lit are the ruins 
of a fortified manor house, Boverton Place, (p. 128.) 

Bridgend (8021), a market town on the Ogmore river, 
which divides it into two quarters. Old Castle and New Castle. 
Each township formerly possessed a fortress, but the ruins of 
New Castle, which retains a Norman gateway, alone remain, 
(pp. 20, 25, 86, 93, 148.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 175 

Briton Ferry (8472), a sea-port at the mouth of the Nedd, 
deriving its importance from its docks, and steel and tin-plate 
works, (pp. 35, 51, 82, 103.) 

Caerau (237), a village four miles west of Cardiff. The 
church stands on an eminence, which is surmounted by a large 
Roman camp. (p. 130.) 

Caerphilly (32,844), a market town on the east border of 
the county, seven miles north of Cardiff. The town, which is 




Bridgend 



pleasantly situated at the foot of Cefn Carnau, owes its large 
population to the neighbouring colliery district of the Rhymney 
valley, though even in the seventeenth century its market rivalled 
that of Cardiff. It is chiefly notable for the ruins of its famous 
castle, built by Gilbert de Clare in the thirteenth century, and 
enlarged by the Despensers. In size it is second only to Windsor, 
and possesses a fine hall and some very elaborate outworks. In 
the vicinity are one or two old manor houses, (pp. 20,30, iii, 145.) 



176 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Cardiff (182,259), a county and parliamentary borough on 
the TafF, and the principal town in Glamorgan. Though Cardiff 
has been termed the Welsh Chicago, it is a place of considerable 
antiquity. As T'ibia Amnis it was a military station of importance 
in Roman days, and one of its gateways has been discovered in 
the grounds of the castle, which was built on the lines of the 
Roman rampart. The castle itself is an elaborate modern 
restoration of the medieval fortress, but the ruins of the Norman 
keep built by Robert of Caen stand on a moated mound in the 
centre of the court. The Curthose tower is said to have been for 
20 years the prison of Robert of Normandy. Besides the castle 
the only other ancient building in the town is St John's church, 
a fifteenth century edifice with a fine Perpendicular tower. The 
old church of St Mary, which was connected with a Benedictine 
priory, was destroyed by a flood in 1607. Cardiff also once 
possessed some habitations of Black and Grey Friars, and the 
ruins of the house which Lord Herbert built out of the material 
of the latter still stand near the City Hall. Though always a 
port, Cardiff's commercial prosperity dates only from the middle 
of the last century. It now possesses a splendidly equipped series 
of docks, and it is the largest coal port in the world. The town 
is well built and its streets are spacious. A fine group of 
buildings consisting of the City Hall, the Assize Courts, the 
Welsh National Museum, and the University College have been 
erected in Cathays Park, and there is a large library in another 
part of the town. (pp. 3, 27, 31, 46, 80, 82, 95, 98, 99, loi, 109, 
III, 113, 115, 116, 128, 138, 144, 145, 160, 165.) 

Castell Coch, a castle on the slopes of Cefn On, three 
miles south-west of Caerphilly, which takes its name from the 
ruddy tint of its walls. The present structure is a modern 
restoration of the original building, which was probably intended 
to guard the pass of the Taff. On the hill side are Lord Bute's 
well-known vineyards, (pp. 77, 144.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 177 

Cheriton (128), a village in the north-west of the Gower 
peninsula. The church is Early English, and at Llandimore 
are some remains of a fifteenth century castle. On North Hill 
Tor is a Danish camp. (pp. 55, 138.) 

Coity, a village near Bridgend. It possesses a fine cruciform 
Decorated church, and the crumbling remains of a large castle, 
once the seat of the Turbervilles. (pp. 138, 145.) 

Cowbridge (1167), a municipal borough and market town 
pleasantly situated in the centre of the Vale of Glamorgan on the 




Cheriton Church 

banks of the Daw. It shares in the Parliamentary representation 
of Cardiff. The church has a curious Early English tower, and 
near it are some fragments of the ancient town walls and one of 
the gateways. The Grammar School was refounded in the time 
of James II. The neighbouring hill of Stalling Down was the 
scene of a sanguinary encounter between Glyndwr and the English 
forces in 1405. (pp. 25, 36, 114, 141, 145, 160, 162, 163.) 
W. G. 12 



178 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Coychurch (1391), a village near Bridgend possessing a 
handsome cruciform church of the Transitional Decorated period. 
In the churchyard are two Celtic crosses, (pp. 23, 132, 138.) 

Dinas Powis, a village five miles south-west of Cardiff, 
where there are the remains of a castle. 

Ewenny (357)? a parish on the Ewenny river near Bridgend, 
notable as the site of a Benedictine priory founded in 1140 by 
Maurice de Londres. The church remains almost intact and is a 
fine example of Norman work. The gateway and portions of the 
external wall of the monastery also survive, (pp. 33, 136.) 

FlemingSton (69), a village 3I miles south-east of Cowbridge 
overlooking the Daw. Near the church is a once fortified manor 
house with a Jacobean hall. (p. 149.) 

Gelligaer (35,521), a village on the east border of the 
county 14 miles north of Cardiff overlooking the Rhymney 
valley. It was once a Roman military station, and considerable 
remains of the fortifications have recently been unearthed. In 
the neighbourhood are the populous colliery villages of Brithdir, 
Bargoed, Hengoed, and Pontlottyn. (pp. 128, 130, 168.) 

Glyncorrwg (8688), a colliery district amongst the hills, 
six miles north of Maesteg. (p. 69.) 

Gorseinon, a village near Loughor depending on vitriol and 
tin-plate works. The ancient parish church of Llandeilo Talybont 
is interesting. At the neighbouring village of Gowerton are 
some extensive steel works. 

Hirwain, a populous colliery suburb of Aberdare, four 
miles north-west of the town. (pp. 9, 92.) 

Kenflg (301), a village amongst the sand-warrens near 
Porthcawl. It was once a corporate and parliamentary borough, 
but the town was overwhelmed by the sand in the sixteenth 
century. A fragment of its castle may still be seen amongst 
the dunes, and the local public house was once the town hall. 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 179 

The old municipal mace is in the Cardiff Museum. In the 
centre of surrounding sand-hills is Kenfig Pool, a sheet of water 
two miles round, and on the road to Margam is an Ogam stone, 
(pp. 42, 44, 51, 59, 91, 109, 126, 145, 160.) 

Laleston (706), a village near Bridgend where are the 
remains of a cromlech. 

Llanbleddian (745), the mother parish of Cowbridge. On 
a knoll overlooking the village are the remains of St Quintin's 
castle, (pp. 1 14, 168.) 

Llancarfan (446), a village in the valley of the Carfan 
brook, a feeder of the Daw. It was the site of a famous Celtic 
monastery founded by St Cadoc in the sixth century. The church 
has a transitional Norman arcade, and the remains of a fine screen. 
On a neighbouring hill is an ancient camp, (pp. 132, 138, 
, 166, 168.) 

Llandaff (9142), a cathedral city on the banks of the TafF, 
near Cardiff. It was a bishopric of importance before the coming 
of the Normans, but the present cathedral dates from the twelfth 
century, and though retaining its Norman doorways, belongs 
chiefly to the Early English and Decorated periods. It possesses 
a number of interesting monuments. On the high ground above 
the cathedral are the ruins of the ancient episcopal palace destroyed 
by Glyndwr in 1402. (pp. 23, 32, 113, 134-6, 150, 167.) 

Llanddewi (120), a parish in the west of Gower in the 
vicinity of which are the sites of Llanddewi and Scurlage castles, 
(p. 1 44-) 

Llandough, a village near Penarth, once the site of a Celtic 
monastery, and still retaining a fine specimen of a Celtic pillar 
cross. There is another village of the same name near Cow- 
bridge, (pp. 25, 93, 132.) 

Llangan (207), a small village 3! miles north-west from 
Cowbridge possessing an interesting example of a sculptured 

12 — 2 



180 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

wheel cross of Celtic workmanship, and an almost perfect 
fifteenth century cross, (pp. 132, 138.) 

Llangenydd, a village on the west verge of Gower, once 
the site of a monastery. On Harding Down are some earthworks. 

(p. 55-) 

L#langY^slach, a parish five miles north of Swansea. On 
one of the neighbouring hills is a stone circle, and in the church- 
yard is the base of a Celtic cross, (p. 125.) 

Llangynwyd (2098), the mother parish of Maesteg, near 
which are the remains of a castle destroyed by the younger 
Llewelyn, (pp. no, 144.) 

Llanmadoc (149), a village on the north-west extremity 
of the Gower peninsula. In the churchyard is a Celtic cross, 
and on the summit of the neighbouring hill is a large camp. 
The shore is overhung in places by some prominent limestone 
tors beneath which are bone caverns, (p. 55.) 

Llanmaes (142), a village four miles south from Cowbridge. 
The church contains some mural frescoes. Near it are the ruins 
of Malafant Castle, (pp. 114, 141.) 

Llanmihangel (30), a parish near Cowbridge possessing 
a fine fifteenth century manor house remodelled in Tudor times, 
(p. 148.) 

Llanrhidian, a village in Gower bordering on the Burry 
inlet. In the vicinity are the ruins of Weobley Castle, and on 
the ridge of Cefn-y-Bryn is the famous cromlech, Arthur's Stone. 
The parish also possesses more than one menhir and some traces 
of a camp. (pp. 55, 58, 124, 145.) 

Llansamlet (3801), a parish in the Swansea industrial zone 
overlooking the Tawe valley, thriving chiefly on tin-plate and 
spelter works, (p. 82.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 181 

Llantrissant (50,929), a market town on the north edge of 
the Vale of Glamorgan, and a contributory borough to Cardiff. It 
is chiefly remarkable for its romantic situation on the brow of a hill 
overlooking the lowlands. The eminence is crowned by the ruins 
of a castle said to have been destroyed in the insurrection of 
Llewelyn Bren. On the opposite hill is a camp. Iron ore was 
once worked in the neighbourhood, which is now occupied by 
colliery villages, (pp. 20, 32, 80, 83, 113, 160, 162, 169.) 

Llantrithyci, a village three miles eastward from Cowbridge, 
possessing an interesting church and the ruins of a Tudor manor 
house, (p. 150.) 

Llantwit Major (i 188), a quaint old town 4^ miles south- 
west of Cowbridge on the Colhugh brook, and to the antiquary one 
of the most attractive places in the county. In the sixth century 
it was the seat of a monastery presided over by St Illtyd, though 
nothing remains from Celtic times but a collection of ninth century 
crosses in the church, which dates from the thirteenth century and 
is of peculiar interest. The town possesses a medieval town 
hall, and the ruins of a manor house. In a neighbouring field 
were discovered the foundations of a Roman villa. Overlooking 
the shore are some earthworks, (pp. 37, 49, 130, 131, 137, 138, 
148, 167.) 

Loughor (41 1 8), a decayed town at the mouth of the Loughor 
river eight miles north-west of Swansea, generally identified with 
the Roman Leucarum. At the vicarage is an Ogam stone made 
out of a Roman altar, and by the side of the river are the ruins 
of a medieval castle, (pp. 7, 36, 126, 128.) 

Maesteg (24,977), a flourishing town in the Llynfi valley 
some six miles eastward of Port Talbot, owing its existence to its 
former ironworks but now chiefly dependent upon its collieries, 
which stretch from the adjoining village of Garth northwards to 
Caerau. (p. 33.) 



182 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

Marcross (95), a village near Nash Point, six miles south- 
west of Cowbridge. The church contains a Norman chancel arch, 
and in the parish are the remains of a cromlech. (pp. 49, 
60, 138.) 

Margam (14,713, including Port Talbot), a village four 
miles south-east from Aberavon, noteworthy for its once prosperous 
Cistercian monastery founded by Robert of Gloucester in 1147. 
The site of the abbey is now occupied by a mansion, in the 
grounds of which are the ruins of the choir and chapter-house. 
The parish church, a late Norman building, was the nave of the 
minster and contains a fine collection of Celtic crosses and 
sepulchral slabs. There are several inscribed stones and camps 
on the neighbouring hills, (pp. 14, 8 8, 128, 131, 136.) 

Merthyr Mawr (i 89), a parish near Bridgend on theOgmore 
river. In the churchyard are some effigies and Celtic crosses, and 
two other crosses are at Merthyr Mawr House. The shore is 
remarkable for its extensive sand-warrens, on the edge of which 
stand the remains of Candleston Castle. Among the sand-hills 
have been discovered remains of a large prehistoric burial-place, 
(pp. 87, 132.) 

Merthyr Tydfil (80,990), a county and parliamentary 
borough in the north-east corner of the county, now the third 
most important town in the county and the metropolis of the iron 
trade. Adjoining it are the Dowlais ironworks, and the neigh- 
bouring collieries are very numerous. To the north of the 
town are the ruins of Morlais Castle, a feudal outpost, (pp. 3, 
30, 81, 82, 86, 87, 89, 144, 162, 169.) 

Monknash (78), a village on the Bristol Channel, near 
the Nash. It borrows its prefix from some remains of monastic 
buildings. 

Mountain Ash (42,246), a typical colliery town in the 
Cynon valley 32 miles south-east of Aberdare. (p. 30.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 183 

Nantgarw, a village in the Taff valley once celebrated for 
its porcelain, (p. 86.) 

Neath (17,586) — the Nidum of the Romans — a municipal 
borough and market town on the Nedd. In medieval times it 
possessed both a castle and an abbey, the ruins of which still 
remain. The abbey, described by Leland as the fairest abbey in 
Wales," was founded for Cistercians by Richard de Granville in 
II 1 1, and was Early English in style. Portions of the church 




Merthyr Tydfil 

survive, but the site is chiefly occupied by the ruins ot a seventeenth 
century mansion erected out of its materials and incorporating 
some of its domestic buildings. The town now is the centre of a 
busy industrial district abounding lin tin-plate and copper works. 
On the summit of Mynydd Drummau are a stone circle and a 
menhir, (pp. 35, 82, 86, 125, 128, 137, 150, 162.) 

Newton Nottage (3444, including Porthcawl), a village 
on Ogmore Bay near Porthcawl. The church has a fortified 
tower and a curious stone pulpit. Between the church and the 



184 GLAMORGANSHIRE 

sea is a well which fills only when the tide is out. Nottage Court 
is a Tudor manor house, (pp. 23, 51, 139, 149, 168.) 

Ogmore Valleys, a thickly populated colliery district 
through which flow the Ogmore and Garw rivers. The chief 
villages are Nantymoel, Gilfach Coch, Blackmill, Blaengarw and 
Pontycwmmer. (pp. 23i 90.) 

Oxwich (178), a village in the south of Gower, on the 
shores of a large and beautiful bay. The church is interesting, 
and on the headland are the ruins of a castle, (pp. 52, 58.) 

OYStermouth (6098), a seaside resort on the west side of 
Swansea Bay, better known from its outstanding islets as the 
Mumbles. The village possesses a pier and the picturesque ruins 
of a castle. Beyond the headland are Langland and Caswell 
Bays, two favourite bathing-places, (pp. 52, 60, 97, 145, 168.) 

Penarth (15,488), a watering place and port on the Ely 
estuary, two miles south of Cardiff. Its proximity to Cardiff and 
its fine position on the top of a cliff have made it a favourite 
residential quarter. It possesses some docks and a pier. A section 
of Rhaetic rocks, from their extensive exposure on the headland, 
are known as " Penarth Beds." (pp. 23, 46, 75, 86, loi.) 

Penmark (495), a village in the south of the Vale of 
Glamorgan three miles west of Barry, where are the ruins of a 
castle. Fonmon Castle, a modernised Norman stronghold, is also 
in the neighbourhood, (pp. 69, 144, 166.) 

Pennard (245), a parish in Gower on the east side of Oxwich 
Bay. Overlooking a sandy creek are the ruins of a castle, and 
the face of the cliffs are perforated with bone caverns. The 
neighbouring village of Parkmill is much visited for its 
picturesqueness. (p. 54.) 

Penrice (2 1 5) , a village in Gower near Oxwich Bay possessing 
the picturesque ruins of a once strong and extensive castle, (p. 54.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 185 

Peterston-super-Ely (389), a village in the Vale of 
Glamorgan, six miles west of Cardiff, where are a few fragments 
of a castle, (p. 32.) 

Pontardulais, a village in the Loughor valley, the centre 
of a busy district occupied chiefly in tin-plate manufacture. 

Pontypridd (43,211), a large market and colliery town at 
the confluence of the Rhondda and TafF rivers forming a natural 
focus upon which the immense traffic from the contiguous mining 
valleys converges. It possesses a remarkable one-arched bridge, 
and on the hill-side overlooking the town is a modern stone 
circle. Hopkinstown and Treforest are industrial suburbs, 
(pp. 31, 85, 87, 169.) 

Port Eynon (207), a village in the south of the Gower 
peninsula standing on its own bay, and possessing some fine clift' 
scenery. In the neighbourhood are the Culver Hole and the 
Paviland Caves, (p. 54.) 

Porthcawl (3444, including Newton Nottage), a popular 
watering place on the west side of Ogmore Bay. It possesses a 
dock, but its shipping trade has now vanished. Near it is Sker 
House, a decayed Tudor manor house, associated with Blackmore's 
Maid of Sker. (pp. 51, 103, i49-) 

Porthkerry (181), a parish near Barry overlooking a pretty 
bay. On the cliffs are some earthworks known as "the Bulwarks." 
(pp. 48, 155.) 

Port Talbot (14,002, including Margam), a flourishing 
port on the east side of Swansea Bay, with some extensive docks 
and steel works, (pp. 34, 103.) 

Rhondda Valleys (152,781), the most productive colliery 
district in the county, comprising the villages along the banks of 
the two Rhondda rivers and their tributaries. It is celebrated for 
its steam coal, and is densely populated. The chief places are 

12—5 



186 GLAMORGAiSrSHmE 

Blaen Rhondda, Treherbert, Treorky, Pentre, Ystradyfodwg, 
Llwynypia, Clydach, Tonypandy, Ferndale, Tylorstown, and 
Forth. On the hill side near Llwynypia once stood the Franciscan 
Friary of Penrhys. (p. 30.) 

Rhossili (246), a village at the south-west extremity of Gower 
near the Worms Head. The cliff scenery is bold and impressive, 
and behind the bay rise extensive downs on which are some pre- 
historic antiquities, (pp. 55, 138.) 

St Athan (360), a village near the mouth of the Daw six 
miles south-east of Cowbridge. The church has some interesting 
monuments, and on the banks of the river are the ruins of East 
Orchard castle. 

St Bride Major (783), a village four miles south of 
Bridgend in a fold of Ogmore Down. The church has some 
monuments, and near the confluence of the Ewenny and Ogmore 
rivers is the ruined keep of Ogmore Castle, (pp. 33, 145.) 

St Donat's a village one mile east of Nash Point possessing 
a residential castle of great interest. In the churchyard is a fine 
medieval cross, (pp. 49, 141, 144, 169.) 

St Pagan's (549), a village four miles west of Cardiff. 
A desperate engagement between the Royalist and Parliamentary 
forces took place in the neighbourhood in 1648. St Pagan's 
Castle is a large Tudor residence built on the site of a medieval 
stronghold. The church exhibits some Decorated work. (pp. 32, 
117, 139* I49-) 

St Hilary (138), a village two miles south-east of Cowbridge 
overlooking the valley of the Daw. In the parish are the ruins 
of Beaupre Castle which possesses a fine renaissance porch, 
(p. 149.) 



188 GLAMORGAXSHIRE 

St Mary Hill (177), a parish four miles east of Bridgend 
noted for its annual horse fair. The church is a prominent 
landmark and possesses a good medieval cross, (p. 114.) 

St Nicholas (370), a village mid-way between Cardiff and 
Cowbridge. In the neighbourhood are some remarkable cromlechs, 
(p. 124.) 

Southerndown, a watering place four miles south of 
Bridgend. The coast is geologically interesting. Behind a lofty 
headland is Dunraven Castle, a modern mansion occupying tradi- 
tionally the site of an early castle, (p. 50.) 

Sully (314), a village on the Bristol Channel two miles east 
of Barry. Near the church are the foundations of a castle 
and close to the coast is a small island on which is a camp, 
(pp. 48, 144.) 

Swansea (114,663), a county and parliamentary borough 
at the mouth of the Tawe, and the second largest port and town 
in the county. It is supposed to have originated as a Scandinavian 
settlement, but its real history begins with the Norman castle 
built by the Earl of Warwick on his conquest of Gower. The 
ruins of this castle as reconstructed by Bishop Gower in 1330 stand 
in the centre of the town and show some Decorated arcading. 
The town itself occupies a fine situation on the shores of its bay, 
and the suburbs are spread over the adjoining hill side. In spite 
of its long history it has few antiquities. The chief public 
buildings are the Town Hall, Royal Institution, and Free Library. 
The church, though modern, has an ancient chapel attached. 
The local commerce is immense, and the town possesses some 
magnificent docks. It is the metropolis of the copper trade and 
owing to the number and variety of its smelting works it has 
been termed the metallurgical capital of the world. There are 
more than 150 furnaces for the treatment of different kinds of 
ores within four miles of the town. (pp. 3, 48, 52, 82, 85, 88, 
98, 99, 103, 162, 168.) 



CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES 189 

Swansea Valley (iii)95o), the populous district lying to 
the north of Swansea. It consists of a long string of industrial 
villages following the course of the Tawe, the chief of which are 
Ystalyfera, Llanguick, Pontardawe, Clydach, Morriston, and 
Landore. The old Swansea canal runs through the valley, which 
abounds in collieries and copper, steel, and chemical works. The 
northern portion contains some valuable anthracite seams. At 
Ystalyfera there is some striking rock scenery, and on a hill 
near Llanguick are the remains of a stone circle, (pp. 36, 82, 
83, 85, 135.) 

Xondu, a market town at the junction of the Llynfi and 
Ogmore valleys, depending on collieries and ironworks, (p. 33.) 

Wenvoe (505), a village 4^ miles south-west from Cardiff 
which once possessed two castles, Wenvoe and Wrinstone. 

Ystradowen (228), a village two miles north of Cowbridge 
near which are some fragments of Talyfan Castle. 



190 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 







England & Wales Wales 
37>337»537 acres 4.778.182 

acres 

Glamorgan 
518,865 acres 



Fig. I. The Area of Glamorganshire compared with 
that of England and Wales 



England & Wales 
36,070,492 



Wales 
2,025,202 

Glamorgsin 
1,121,062 
I 



Fig. 2. The Population of Glamorganshire compared 
with that of England and Wales 



DIAGRAMS 



191 




•••••••••••••••• 

•••••••••••••••• 



Radnorshire 50 Lancashire 2554 



• ••• e*e* 

• €•••••• 

• •••••oe 




• ••e**«**««* 



England and Wales 618 Wales 271 Glamorganshire 1382 

Fig. 3. Comparative Density of Population to the 
square mile in igii 

{Each square represents a sq. mile and each dot ten persons) 



United Kingdom 
260,567,552 Tons 



South Wales 
50,116,264 



Fig. 4. Output of Coal from the S. Wales Coalfield in 
1912 compared with that of the United Kingdom 



192 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 



— 1860 — 
— 1870 — 
— 1880 — 
— 1890 — - 
— 1900 — 
— 1910 — 






Tons 
10 million 
13K „ 
21 ,, 

39 J^ .. 
48^ .) 



Fig. 5. Comparative Increase in the Output of Coal from 
the S, Wales Coalfield during the last 50 years 



1- - 1863- -I \ 

'<- - 1870 — I 

L -1880 i 

l- -1890 

I- - 1900 

h- -I9IO- 



Total Tonnage 
Imports & Exports 

4,035,827 Tons 

4,323,089 

8,273,029 
15.452.502 
21,895,445 
28,349,033 



Fig. 6. Growth in Trade of the Glamorganshire Ports 
during the last 50 years 



n 801-1 



1851 - - 
-1861,- - - 

1871 - - 
-1881- - 

1891 - - 
-1901 - - 
• 1911 — 



70,879 
231,849 
317.752 
397.859 

511.933 
687,218 

859.931 

HI, 121,062 



Fig. 7. Growth in the Population of Glamorganshire 
during the last century 



DIAGRAMS 



193 




Fig. 8. Proportionate Area under Corn Crops 
in Glamorganshire in igi2 




Fig. 9. Proportionate Areas of chief Cereals 
in Glamorganshire in 1912 



194 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 




-^°l^,fo acres 



Other Crops] & Bare Fallow 
10,941 acres 



Fig. 10. Proportionate Areas of land in 
Glamorganshire in 1912 




Fig. II. Proportionate numbers of Live Stock 
in Glamorganshire in 1912 



DIAGRAMS 



195 




Fig. 12. Value of Glamorganshire Imports and Exports 
compared with that of the United Kingdom in igi2 




Fig. 13. Proportionate Areas of Coal-producing 
and other districts in Glamorganshire 



196 



GLAMORGANSHIRE 




Fig. 14. Comparative Value of Imports and Exports at 
the various Glamorganshire ports in 1912 




Fig. 15. Comparative Volume of Trade of the 
chief Glamorganshire ports in 1912 



CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 



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I [diJ ^^^ Measures 

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